What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Foregone vs Forbear - What's the difference?

foregone | forbear |

As verbs the difference between foregone and forbear

is that foregone is while forbear is to keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from; to give up.

As an adjective foregone

is previous, former.

As a noun forbear is

.

foregone

English

Verb

(head)
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • previous, former
  • bygone
  • *1874 , William Henley, O, Gather Me the Rose :
  • *:For with the dream foregone', ' foregone ,
  • The deed forborne for ever,
  • *:The worm, regret, will canker on,
  • And time will turn him never.
  • (informal) inevitable, predictable
  • Derived terms

    * foregone conclusion

    forbear

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) forberen, from (etyl) . (got)

    Verb

  • To keep away from; to avoid; to abstain from; to give up.
  • To refrain from proceeding; to pause; to delay.
  • * Bible, 1 Kings xxii. 6
  • Shall I go to battle, or shall I forbear ?
  • To refuse; to decline; to give no heed.
  • * Bible, Ezekiel ii. 7
  • Thou shalt speak my words unto them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear .
  • To control oneself when provoked.
  • * Cowper
  • The kindest and the happiest pair / Will find occasion to forbear .
  • * Old proverb
  • Both bear and forbear .

    Etymology 2

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • * [1906] 2004, Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville, Ethel Wedgwood tr.
  • Sirs, I am quite sure that the King of England's forbears rightly and justly lost the conquered lands that I hold [...]
  • * [1936] 2004, Raymond William Firth, We the Tikopia [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=Eiji-EnuhXUC&pg=PA345&lpg=PA345&sig=aB2VV0fcWv6lkQPQatQQbDhlm_8]
  • One does not take one’s family name therefrom, and again the position of the mother in that group is determined through her father and his male forbears in turn; this too is a patrilineal group.
  • * 1997, H. L. Hix, Understanding W. S. Merwin [http://print.google.com/print?hl=en&id=8JIveUt8StQC&pg=PA107&lpg=PA107&sig=_AETFoZUYlti38_Va0zOHD4yZTk]
  • Beginning with the bald declaration “I think I was cold in the womb,” the speaker in “The Forbears'” then decides that his brother (who died soon after birth) must also have been cold in the womb, like his grandfather John and the ' forbears who antedated John:
    English heteronyms