forbid

present singular third person forbids · participle present forbidding · past forbade · past forbad · nonstandard past forbidded · participle past forbidden

1. transitiveTo disallow; to proscribe.

   Smoking in the restaurant is forbidden.

   2 more examples

   […] the Mole recollected that animal-etiquette forbade any sort of comment on the sudden disappearance of one's friends at any moment, for any reason or no reason whatever.

   1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC

   Solon also forbade the export of corn and other agricultural products, with the single exception of olive oil, of which Athens had a surplus.

   1998, Robert Garland, Daily Life of the Ancient Greeks, Greenwood Press, →ISBN, page 8

2. ditransitiveTo deny, exclude from, or warn off, by express command.

   Have I not forbid her my house?

   c. 1597 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merry Wiues of Windsor”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]

3. transitiveTo oppose, hinder, or prevent, as if by an effectual command.

   An impassable river forbids the approach of the army.

   1 more example

   a blaze of glory that forbids the sight

   1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC

4. obsoletetransitiveTo accurse; to blast.

   He shall live a man forbid.

   c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

5. obsoletetransitiveTo defy; to challenge.

   What part of "no" do you forbid to understand?

   1 more example

   So there is a resemblance between the partie that here gives licence to come to the tree of life, and the other that forbid to come to it. The one threatned with a sword; the other promiseth to the persons that keep the condition here expressed

   1598, Lancelot Andrewes, sermon preached in the Parish Church of St. Giles without Cripplegate, London