Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
verb
To go to ruin; be destroyed; perish.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dialectal, intransitive, obsolete
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To destroy; ruin.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dialectal, obsolete, transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
From Middle English forfaren, from Old English forfaran (“to pass away, perish, lose, destroy, ruin, cause to perish, intercept, obstruct”), from Proto-Germanic *frafaraną, equivalent to for- + fare. Cognate with Scots forfar (“to go amiss, decay, perish”), Old Frisian forfara (“to die”), German verfahren (“to use up, spend, lose one's way”), Old Danish forfare (“to perish”).
