forbid
Formsforbids, forbidding, forbade, forbidden
- 1To prohibit or disallow something by refusing to permit it.
Local laws forbid open fires during the dry season.
Her doctor forbade any strenuous exercise after surgery.
Similarprohibit, ban, outlaw, bar, disallow
Oppositeallow, permit, authorize, sanction
Note
Here the verb does its everyday work of prohibition, and its parts explain it: Old English forbēodan joins for- ('away') to bid ('to proclaim'), so to forbid is to command something away. The usual past is forbade, as in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, where animal-etiquette 'forbade any sort of comment.' Forbad and plain forbid also occur as past forms, while forbidded is nonstandard.
- 2To deny someone access to something, or to warn them away, by a direct command.
The general forbade the troops from crossing the river.
Temple elders forbid outsiders from entering the inner sanctum.
Note
Here the verb takes two objects: the person shut out and the thing they are shut out of. Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor has 'Have I not forbid her my house?' The house is a bare second object with no preposition. Forbid also stands as the past participle there, one of the older forms mentioned under the everyday sense.
- 3To oppose, hinder, or prevent something, as though acting by an effective command.
The steep cliffs forbid any approach from the sea.
Her sense of duty forbade her from abandoning the post.
Similarprevent, preclude, block, prohibit, hinder
Note
The subject here gives no order at all. It is a river, a cliff, or a dazzle of light that blocks the way as firmly as a command would. Dryden's The Hind and the Panther (1687) speaks of 'a blaze of glory that forbids the sight,' brightness that stops the eye. The figure carries the command that warns someone off over to things that bar the way simply by being there.
Less common meanings
- 4To curse someone or something; to blight or strike as if with a curse.
He shall live a man forbid.
c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”Note
A meaning the language has dropped, best known from Macbeth (c. 1606): 'He shall live a man forbid,' that is, a man under a curse. Forbid works there as a participle placed after its noun, much like an adjective. When you meet it in Shakespeare, read it as 'accursed' rather than 'prohibited.' It is not a meaning to use in new writing.
- 5To defy or challenge someone; to set oneself openly against an opponent.
Note
Long gone from the language, this sense turns prohibition into confrontation: the speaker sets themselves against an opponent rather than against an act. In older texts the two readings can sit close together. Before choosing one, check whether the object is a person being defied or a deed being disallowed. To express defiance today, use defy or challenge.
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Origin
From Middle English forbeden, from Old English forbēodan (“to forbid, prohibit, restrain”), from Proto-Germanic *furibeudaną. It is made up of for- (“from, away”) plus bid (“to offer, proclaim”), and is related to Dutch verbieden and German verbieten.