Meanings
present singular third person forlets · participle present forletting · alternative forelet · alternative forleet · alternative forleit · alternative forlete · alternative foreleit
- UKarchaicdialectaltransitiveTo abandon; give up; leave; leave behind; forsake; desert; neglect.First known use 10th–17th c.
to forlet your sins
4 more examples
I soothly quoth, then say, to you, for that each such, he that forlets wife his, be-out unclean lust doing forth-lying thing, doeth (works) he doeth the same to sin, …
1807, The Gothic Gospel of saint MatthewBut, by my soul, I dare well swear His wretched life he shall forlet [...]
1834, Samuel Astley Dunham, A History of Europe During the Middle Ages - Volume 4… whether his mind and his soul were deadly and perishing, or it were aye living and eternal; and again, about his good, what it was, and what good was best for him to do, and what evil to forlet.
1920, Alfred (King of England), Pope Gregory I, Paulus Orosius, King Alfred's books - Page 11[...] and then, if upon mature deliberation, when our mind is staid and our senses settled, the thing appear to be naught, we are to hate and abhor it, and in no wise either to forlet and put off, or altogether to omit and forbear correction, like as they refuse meats who have no stomach nor appetite to eat.
2014, Philemon Holland, Plutarch, Plutarch's Moralia - Page 121 - ScotlandUKdialectaltransitiveTo forget.
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
- Proto-Germanic*fralētaną“to leave, dismiss”
- Old Englishforlǣtan“to leave”
- Middle Englishforleten“forsake, reject, renounce, omit, lose, forgive”
- Englishforlet
From Middle English forleten (“forsake, reject, renounce, omit, lose, forgive”), from Old English forlǣtan (“to leave”), from Proto-Germanic *fralētaną (“to leave, dismiss”), equivalent to for- + let. Cognate with Scots forleet (“to forsake, abandon”), Saterland Frisian ferläite (“to forlet, abandon”), West Frisian forlitte (“to forlet”), Dutch verlaten (“to desert, abandon”), German verlassen (“to leave”), Swedish förlåta (“to excuse, forgive, remit”).
More words from Middle English, Old English, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
forlet. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forlet
“forlet.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forlet. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “forlet,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forlet.
Source: forlet on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.