FORFEIT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Forfeit

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/fˈɔrfɪt/ Listen

noun

Forfeit n.

Injury; wrong; mischief. (Obs. & R.) "To seek arms upon people and country that never did us any forfeit."

A thing forfeit or forfeited; what is or may be taken from one in requital of a misdeed committed; that which is lost, or the right to which is alienated, by a crime, offense, neglect of duty, or breach of contract; hence, a fine; a mulct; a penalty; as, he who murders pays the forfeit of his life. "Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal Remit thy other forfeits."

Something deposited and redeemable by a sportive fine; whence the game of forfeits. "Country dances and forfeits shortened the rest of the day."

verb

Forfeit v. t. (past & past part. forfeited; pres. part. forfeiting) To lose, or lose the right to, by some error, fault, offense, or crime; to render one's self by misdeed liable to be deprived of; to alienate the right to possess, by some neglect or crime; as, to forfeit an estate by treason; to forfeit reputation by a breach of promise; with to before the one acquiring what is forfeited. "(They) had forfeited their property by their crimes." "Undone and forfeited to cares forever!"

Forfeit v. i.

To be guilty of a misdeed; to be criminal; to transgress. (Obs.)

To fail to keep an obligation. (Obs.) "I will have the heart of him if he forfeit."

Forfeit past part., adj. In the condition of being forfeited; subject to alienation. "Once more I will renew His lapsèd powers, though forfeite."

adjective

Forfeit adj. Lost or alienated for an offense or crime; liable to penal seizure. "Thy wealth being forfeit to the state." "To tread the forfeit paradise."

See images of 'Forfeit'

Etymology of 'Forfeit'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

Add this dictionary
to your browser search bar

"Forfeit" Quotes from Famous Books

... can see if they will. I don't ask to be released myself until my servant gets back. But I do urge you to let me have him under a forfeit, to send to father so that your son there ...

— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius

... not pass into the complaint which it stimulated, and become confirmed consumption. Curiously enough, my comrades had told me in sober earnest—among the rest, Cha, a man of sense and observation—that I would pay the forfeit of my sobriety by being sooner affected than they by the stone-cutter's malady: "a good bouse" gave, they said, a wholesome fillip to the constitution, and "cleared the sulphur off the lungs;" and mine ...

— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller

... have all been nicely laid. Floyd feels certain now that he did enter the office, attracted perhaps by a gleam of light. What if he had not wakened until the fire was under full headway! Locked in, confused, his very life might have been the forfeit, and he shudders. He is not tired of life at three-and-thirty, if some events are not ...

— Floyd Grandon's Honor • Amanda Minnie Douglas

... he wrote, "this will make a considerable difference in your prospects. At the same time, as you have been led to believe that you would come into a considerable property at my death, and as you have done nothing to forfeit my confidence and affection, having proved yourself in all ways a steady and industrious and honourable young fellow, I do not consider it right that you should be altogether disinherited by a discovery which has occasioned me such vast pleasure. I have therefore instructed my solicitor to prepare ...

— Captain Bayley's Heir: - A Tale of the Gold Fields of California • G. A. Henty

... my real feelings known, and I feel I should sink in my own estimation if I gave way, though my natural desire is to do so. In the face of opportunities (not I mean of paedicatio, but of expression of excessive affection, etc.), or what might be such, I always fail to speak lest I should forfeit the esteem of the other person. I have a feeling of surprise when any one I like evinces a liking for me. I feel that those I love are immeasurably my superiors, though my reason may tell me it is not so. I would grovel at their feet, do anything ...

— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 5 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

More quotes...