forslow

F4O1R1S1L1O1W4

verb

To be dilatory about; put off; postpone; neglect; omit.

Scrabble 13

Meanings

verbforslow (third-person singular simple present forslows, present participle forslowing, simple past and past participle forslowed)

present singular third person forslows · participle present forslowing · participle past forslowed · past forslowed · alternative forsloe · alternative foreslow · alternative fore-slow

  1. obsoletetransitiveTo be dilatory about; put off; postpone; neglect; omit.

    [I]f you can thinke vpon any preſent meanes for his deliuerie, doe not forſlow it.

    1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for William Holme, […], published 1600, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii, signature [Q iiij], recto
  2. obsoletetransitiveTo delay; hinder; impede; obstruct.

    But by no meanes my way I would forslow / For ought that ever she could doe or say […]

    1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC
    1 more example

    The wond'ring Nereids, though they rais'd no storm, / Foreslow'd her passage, to behold her form.

    1682, John Dryden, Epistles, section XIII
  3. intransitiveobsoleteTo be slow or dilatory; loiter.

    Foreslow no longer, make we hence amaine.

    c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)

Synonyms & antonyms

Origin

  1. Old Englishforslāwian
  2. Middle Englishforslowen
  3. Englishforslow

From Middle English forslowen, forslewen (“to neglect”), from Old English forslāwian, forslǣwan (“to be slow, unwilling, delay, put off”), equivalent to for- + slow.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

forslow. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forslow

MLA

“forslow.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forslow. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “forslow,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forslow.

Source: forslow on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.