Meanings
present singular third person forslows · participle present forslowing · participle past forslowed · past forslowed · alternative forsloe · alternative foreslow · alternative fore-slow
- 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 - 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, →OCLC1 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 - 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
- Old Englishforslāwian
- Middle Englishforslowen
- Englishforslow
From Middle English forslowen, forslewen (“to neglect”), from Old English forslāwian, forslǣwan (“to be slow, unwilling, delay, put off”), equivalent to for- + slow.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
forslow. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forslow
“forslow.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forslow. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “forslow,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/forslow.
Source: forslow on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.