forge

Formsforges, forging, forged

Pluralforges

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To form or create something through sustained, concerted effort.

   Through long negotiations, the leaders sought to forge a durable alliance.

   The community forged a shared identity out of many cultures.

   Similarbuild, form, establish, create, cement

   Oppositebreak

   Note

   The smith's verb carried over to bonds and agreements. People forge relationships, alliances and identities, all things that take effort to make and hold together. Tennyson's Idylls of the King (1859) gives it a darker turn, saying we "forge a life-long trouble for ourselves". John Locke writes of names the schools forged, meaning coinages made deliberately rather than grown in common use.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To make a fake copy of something, such as a document or signature, in order to deceive.

   It is a crime to forge another person's signature.

   She forged passports for people fleeing the country.

   Similarfake, counterfeit, falsify, copy

   Note

   The criminal sense has a grammar worth noticing: the object is the genuine thing being imitated, not the fake. You forge a signature or a passport, the documents are forged, and the result is a forgery. The move from honest making to dishonest making follows the same path as fabricate, which shares its Latin root.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To shape metal by heating it until it glows and then hammering it into form.

   Craftsmen forge tools by heating iron until it glows and shaping it with hammers.

   The swordsmith forged the blade over several days.

   Similarhammer, shape, fashion, work, beat

   Note

   The verb reached English separately from the noun, through Anglo-Norman forger and Old French forgier, from Latin fabrico, "to frame, build". That Latin verb also gave English fabricate, its doublet. The object can be the metal or the thing made: Shakespeare's Hamlet has armor "forged for proof eterne", and the blacksmith in Richard Jefferies's The Amateur Poacher (1879) forged a spearhead.

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To move forward steadily and with effort, pushing toward a goal despite resistance.

   The reformers chose to forge toward change despite fierce opposition.

   The old steamer forged slowly upriver against the current.

   Similarpush, press, plow, advance

   Note

   A different word that happens to share the spelling. This forge is most likely an alteration of force, though it may come from the smith's noun through the idea of steady hammering at something. It began at sea, describing a vessel making headway; Thomas De Quincey writes in 1849 of a ship that "off she forged without a shock". On land it usually appears as forge ahead, or as forging through an obstacle.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   To move or act with a sudden burst of speed or energy.

   The runner forged into the lead on the final lap.

   Sales forge ahead whenever the company launches a new product.

   Similarsurge, shoot, power, race, sprint

   Note

   The sprint to the steady push forward: here the movement comes as a sudden surge, like a runner who forges into first place or forges past a rival. Forge ahead can carry either meaning, so context decides. A long campaign forges ahead steadily, while a final lap forges ahead in a burst.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To produce something untrue or not genuine; to fabricate.

   Politicians sometimes forge narratives to justify unpopular decisions.

   She forged an account of events that never took place.

   Similarfabricate, invent, concoct, manufacture

   Note

   Where the counterfeiting sense copies something real, this one invents something that never existed, such as a story, an account or an excuse. Samuel Butler's Hudibras puts it bluntly: "That paltry story is untrue, / And forged to cheat such gulls as you." In this use forge stands nearest its doublet fabricate, and the two can often trade places.

7. 7
   nouncountable

   A furnace or hearth where metal is heated before being hammered into shape.

   She pulled the glowing bar from the forge and laid it on the anvil.

   The forge roared as the coals reached their hottest.

   Similarfurnace, hearth

   Note

   The oldest name in the family, and the one that points straight back to the smith: Middle English forge, through Old French faverge, from Latin fabrica, "workshop", built on faber, a worker in hard materials. The same Latin word gave English fabric, so a forge and a fabric are distant doublets. Here the word names the fire itself, the hearth where the bar glows before it meets the anvil.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A metalworking shop where hammer blows shape heated metal.

   She apprenticed at a busy forge for three years.

   The old forge on the corner still shapes iron gates by hand.

   Similarsmithy

   Note

   Here the word widens from the fire to the whole building around it, and in a phrase like "the old forge" it can be hard to tell from the hearth sense. Smithy and smithery name the same place. Of the three, forge stays closest to the Latin fabrica, which meant exactly a workshop.

9. 9
   noununcountable

   The act of beating or working iron or steel into shape.

   The forge of fine steel requires both precise heat and rhythmic hammering.

   Mastering the forge of iron took the apprentice many years.

   Similarsmithing

10. 10
    nouncountable

    A web-based platform where developers collaborate on and share software.

    The community hosts dozens of projects on a single forge.

    Many contributors prefer a forge that integrates code review and issue tracking.

    Note

    A programmer's borrowing of the smith's workshop. A software forge, as it is also called, is where code is shaped in common, and GitLab, GitHub and BitBucket are the familiar names. V. M. Brasseur's Forge Your Future with Open Source (2018) uses it this way. Like the workshop sense, it names a place: you host a project on a forge rather than forge it there.

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