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Forbear

verb
(past forbore, obs. forbare; past part. forborne; pres. part. forbearing)
1.
Refrain from doing.  Synonym: hold back.
2.
Resist doing something.  Synonym: refrain.  "She could not forbear weeping"



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"Forbear" Quotes from Famous Books



... the test, And find you quail before a merry jest!" Then the great king himself stood up in ire, With clenched hand raised, and eyes that gleamed dark fire, And fronting the Green Knight he cried: "Forbear! For by my sword ...
— Gawayne And The Green Knight - A Fairy Tale • Charlton Miner Lewis

... bear with their foibles, and acknowledge her own. Without disputing about the right, she sometimes yields to those who are in the wrong. In short, her temper is perfectly good, for it can bear and forbear." ...
— The Bracelets • Maria Edgeworth

... I am not thine. Prim Creed, with categoric point, forbear To feature me my Lord by rule and line. Thou canst not measure Mistress Nature's hair, Not one sweet inch: nay, if thy sight is sharp, Would'st count the strings upon ...
— The Poems of Sidney Lanier • Sidney Lanier

... the respective localities. The sharks of the port of La Guayra seem to furnish an analogous example. They are dangerous and blood-thirsty at the island opposite the coast of Caracas, at the Roques, at Bonayre, and at Curassao; while they forbear to attack persons swimming in the ports of La Guayra and Santa Martha. The natives, who like the ignorant mass of people in every country, in seeking the explanation of natural phenomena, always have recourse to the marvellous, affirm that in the ports just mentioned, ...
— Equinoctial Regions of America • Alexander von Humboldt

... The world could not forbear making a comparison between Charles V., a prince who, though educated amidst wars and intrigues of state, had prevented the decline of age, and had descended from the throne, in order to set apart an interval for thought and reflection; and a priest who, in ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. - From Henry VII. to Mary • David Hume

... interesting to the happiness of millions, the true merits of the question should be perplexed and entangled by expedients so unfriendly to an impartial and right determination. Even such a man could hardly forbear remarking, that a conduct of this kind has too much the appearance of an intention to mislead the people by alarming their passions, rather than to convince them by arguments addressed ...
— The Federalist Papers • Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison

... cannot forbear acquainting you of a very curious passage in relation to Charles the Second's Restoration. Sir Wm. Morrice, who was one of the Secretaries of State soon after, was the person who chiefly transacted that affair with Monk, so that all the papers in order to it were sent him, ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 219, January 7, 1854 • Various

... as though some impudent reply were forming on his tongue; but he thought better of it beneath the steady gaze of the captain's eyes and turned to go. He could not, however, forbear a parting shot. ...
— Doubloons—and the Girl • John Maxwell Forbes

... to-day forbear from jesting on so important a matter. For some time past the efforts of those who most truly love you, my dear child, have been concentrated on the endeavor to settle you suitably; and you would be guilty of ingratitude in meeting with levity those proofs of kindness which ...
— The Ball at Sceaux • Honore de Balzac

... Luke could not forbear a smile of triumph as he passed Harold and Mrs. Tracy, and noticed the look of discomfiture on ...
— Luke Walton • Horatio Alger

... supper of "khichdi." It is hardly a satisfying meal, and many young Memons indulge in a fresh collation before retiring to rest. The "khichdi" finished, the young members of the family set forth for their evening resorts, nor forbear to take such refreshment as the city offers on their journey. They purchase a glass of ice-cream here, accept a cup of tea offered by a friend there or purchase a tumbler of "faludah," which plays the same part in the Mahomedan life of Bombay as ...
— By-Ways of Bombay • S. M. Edwardes, C.V.O.

... you rightly name the Gracious GOD, become yourself gracious, gracious to sympathize, gracious to forbear, gracious to pardon, and thus in a small way resemble the GOD Who gave ...
— Gold Dust - A Collection of Golden Counsels for the Sanctification of Daily Life • E. L. E. B.

... gnats, that we had every night to put ourselves into a bag before we could go to sleep, as otherwise these insects bit us so intolerably that we could get no rest. Wherever they bit, there commonly rose a red blister, almost as broad as a silver penny, which itched so violently that many cannot forbear from scratching, so as to cause inflammations that sometimes aid in the loss of a limb. During our stay, we were allowed to walk in a paved yard about sixty yards square; but were not permitted to go into the town, that we might not learn ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume X • Robert Kerr

... knew and accosted Dante, who could not recognise him till he heard him speak. It was Forese Donati, one of the poet's most intimate connexions. Dante, who had wept over his face when dead, could as little forbear weeping to see him thus hungering and thirsting, though he had expected to find him in the outskirts of the place, among the delayers of repentance. He asked his friend how he had so quickly got higher. Forese said it was owing ...
— Stories from the Italian Poets: With Lives of the Writers, Volume 1 • Leigh Hunt

... tear an unhappy wretch? Spare me, now that I am in my grave; forbear to pollute your pious hands. It is from no tree- trunk that the blood comes. Quit this barbarous land with all speed. Know that I am Pol-y-do'rus. Here I was slain by many arrows, which have taken root and ...
— Story of Aeneas • Michael Clarke

... hundred thousand pieces of eight and fifty head of cattle, Don Diego would forbear from reducing the place to ashes. And what time that suave and courtly commander was settling these details with the apoplectic British Governor, the Spaniards were smashing and looting, feasting, drinking, and ravaging after the hideous manner of ...
— Captain Blood • Rafael Sabatini

... justification has one for treating the subject at all, and why in the particular way which he has chosen? To the pertinency of this question to the present treatise the author has been deeply sensible, and therefore cannot forbear a few prefatory words of explanation ...
— The Basis of Early Christian Theism • Lawrence Thomas Cole

... petition the London Common Council ordered, January 21, 1619, that "the said playhouses be suppressed, and that the players shall from thenceforth forbear and desist from playing in that house."[368] But the players had at Court many influential friends, and these apparently came to their rescue. The order of the Common Council was not put into effect; ...
— Shakespearean Playhouses - A History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to the Restoration • Joseph Quincy Adams

... as at the present moment the style of supernatural romances in general is rather fallen again Into neglect and disfavour. "If," concludes Walter Scott, in his criticism on this work, (and the sentiments expressed by him are so fair and just, that it is impossible to forbear quoting them,) "Horace Walpole, who led the way in this new species of literary composition, has been surpassed by some of his followers in diffuse brilliancy of composition, and perhaps in the art of detaining the mind of the reader ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 1 • Horace Walpole

... said Don Pedro, entering, hat in hand, and bowing low, 'but really the scene was so exquisitely fine, so much to my taste, that I could not forbear looking on awhile. Clara, dear, has Mr. Stewart discovered the way to make love a la mode? I understood you to say he did it oddly and coldly; but, by Venus! I think he does it in the most natural manner possible, and with some warmth and ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII. No. 3. March 1848 • Various

... had never risen to a great height of civilization, nor can I forget the lessons I there learned of the power of sin. All this one can clearly see who visits the three worlds lying next in order to Plasden, but I will forbear the sad and sickening recital of the depth to which a world is carried by sin when once it gains ...
— Life in a Thousand Worlds • William Shuler Harris

... feelings were taken up by my own intelligence from home, I could not but be amused by a scene in the steerage. The carpenter had been married just before leaving Boston, and during the voyage had talked much about his wife, and had to bear and forbear, as every man, known to be married, must, aboard ship; yet the certainty of hearing from his wife by the first ship, seemed to keep up his spirits. The California came, the packet was brought on board; no one was in higher spirits ...
— Two Years Before the Mast • Richard Henry Dana

... much from this man, and felt towards him such utter disgust, that she could forbear ...
— Woman's Trials - or, Tales and Sketches from the Life around Us. • T. S. Arthur

... Norwegian authority of State. Besides, it is self-evident that the Consular administration which may justly be supposed to be equally interested as the Foreign Minister in Norway not being compromised by her agents abroad, cannot forbear, when demands for a Consul's revocation are made on the part of diplomacy, to make the matter the object of ...
— The Swedish-Norwegian Union Crisis - A History with Documents • Karl Nordlund

... I cannot forbear to tell, in this place, the story of what happened between him and Giovanni Bellini. Bellini had the highest reputation as a painter at Venice, and indeed throughout all Italy. When Albrecht was there he easily became intimate with him, and ...
— Albert Durer • T. Sturge Moore

... improvement in French methods of art, if not in intellectual force. Who shall fail to honour the noble ardour which drew him from the security of his studies in Tunis to partake his country's danger? Yet who shall forbear to sigh in thinking that, but for this, his progressing work might still yearly be an element in art-progress for Europe? Gerome and others betook themselves to England instead, and are still benefiting the cause for which they were ...
— Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1883 • T. Hall Caine

... perished by this accusation, the magistrates, incensed at the nature of the crime, so perilous as it seemed to men of a maritime life, and at the loss of several friends of their own, one of "whom had been their principal magistrate, did not forbear to insist against Isobel Crawford, inculpated by Margaret Barclay's confession. A new commission was granted for her trial, and after the assistant minister of Irvine, Mr. David Dickson, had made earnest prayers to God for opening her obdurate and closed heart, ...
— Letters On Demonology And Witchcraft • Sir Walter Scott

... Papacy still prevailed and poor simple men who could not help but feel the manifest idolatry and false faith of the Papacy, in their simplicity, alas! embraced whatever was called Gospel, and was not papistic), we could not forbear testifying also against them publicly, before all Christendom, that we have neither part nor fellowship with their errors, be they many or few, but reject and condemn them, one and all, as wrong and heretical, and contrary to the Scriptures of the prophets and apostles, ...
— Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church • Friedrich Bente

... the earthquake, through which the clamorous rush of water poured. While he watched it, it suddenly stood still, then dived slowly as though bent on descending into the very depths of the gully. He could not forbear uttering an exclamation, which made all the men about him look in the direction where his own ...
— The Secret Power • Marie Corelli

... out in a series of decisive measures. Under strong pressure the convocation was brought to pray that the power of independent legislation till now exercised by the church should come to an end, and to promise "that from henceforth we shall forbear to enact, promulge, or put into execution any such constitutions and ordinances so by us to be made in time coming, unless your highness by your royal assent shall license us to make, promulge, and execute them, and the same so made be ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9 • Various

... [the mind] is indeed what the Treatise of Human Nature makes it, I find I have been only in an enchanted castle, imposed upon by spectres and apparitions. I blush inwardly to think how 1 have been deluded; I am ashamed of my frame, and can hardly forbear expostulating with my destiny: Is this thy pastime, O Nature, to put such tricks upon a silly creature, and then to take off the mask, and show him how he hath been befooled? If this is the philosophy of human nature, my soul enter thou ...
— Man or Matter • Ernst Lehrs

... received Colonel Stuart's report of the operations of his brigade during the time he was detached, and must therefore forbear to mention names. Lieutenant-Colonel Kyle, of the Seventy-first, was mortally wounded on Sunday, but the regiment itself I did not see, as only a small fragment of it was with the brigade when it joined the division on Monday morning. Great credit is due the fragments of men of the disordered ...
— The Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman, Complete • William T. Sherman

... and white. In Sussex, Yorkshire, and Durham, mines of iron, coal, slate, and freestone; and in every shire of England, generally quarries of hard stone, chalk, and flint: these be commodities honorable and not feigned, being of such estimation that France, nor other realms, may well forbear; and as for saltpetre, there is sufficient made in England to furnish our turn for the wars. Also we have hot fountains or bathes, which you nor no other realms christened have."—Sign. L. v. rev. If ancient GILDAS speak the truth, Great Britain was no ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin

... Lucy Gray, and Ruth, and Nutting, and the Poet's Epitaph, and other poems known now to most men as possessing in its full fragrance his especial charm. And here it was that the memory of some emotion prompted the lines on Lucy. Of the history of that emotion he has told us nothing; I forbear, therefore, to inquire concerning it, or even to speculate. That it was to the poet's honour I do not doubt; but who ever learned such secrets rightly? Or who should wish to learn? It is best to leave the sanctuary of all hearts inviolate, and to ...
— Wordsworth • F. W. H. Myers

... her warlike brother on the seas His waving streamers to the wind displays, And vows for his return, with vain devotion, pays. Ah, generous youth! that wish forbear, The winds too soon will waft thee here: Slack all thy sails, and fear to come, Alas, thou know'st not thou art wreck'd at home! No more shalt thou behold thy sister's face, Thou hast already had her last embrace. But look aloft, and if thou ken'st from far Among the Pleiads a new-kindled ...
— The Poetical Works of John Dryden, Vol II - With Life, Critical Dissertation, and Explanatory Notes • John Dryden

... more say but this miller He would his words for no man forbear, But told his churls tale in his manner. Me thinketh that I shall rehearse it here; And therefore every gently wight I pray, For Goddes love deem not that I say Of evil intent, but for I might rehearse Their tales all, ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall

... excuse herself, but holding it with both hands, and feeling as if her wrists were breaking, she passed through the sitting-room with such a doleful countenance, while a red angry spot burned on her forehead, that May could not forbear laughing even while she went ...
— May Brooke • Anna H. Dorsey

... been my desire, it was certainly in my power to have been at the head of it [McGill College] for it so happened that I had some difficulty in prevailing with my friend, Mr. McGill, to forbear annexing it as a condition to his bequest that I should fill that situation;" and he added that "a Professorship in McGill College was never desired or thought of by me, nor could any situation in that institution have formed an inducement to me to leave this Province ...
— McGill and its Story, 1821-1921 • Cyrus Macmillan

... Agamemnon, thus to fling Great Ajax to the dogs? 'I am a king.' And I a subject: therefore I forbear More questions. 'Right; for what I will is fair: Yet, if there be who fancy me unjust, I give my conduct up to be discussed.' Mightiest of mighty kings, may proud success And safe return your conquering ...
— The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry • Horace

... Forbear to braid that shining hair; As my curious hand or eye, Hovering round thee, ...
— Tudor and Stuart Love Songs • Various

... knocked his companion down, for he perfectly understood the character of the allusion; but he had sufficient self-command to forbear saying anything that might ...
— The Sea Lions - The Lost Sealers • James Fenimore Cooper

... which engird my paternal residence." A deep groan contradicted the conclusion to which this inquiry seemed to lead; yet Williams, fancying he amused his master, continued to deepen those agonizing recollections which are most dangerous to poignant sensibility. Nor had Evellin the self-command to forbear making inquiries which must, when answered, aggravate his anguish. He bade Williams freely state what he knew of their old neighbours and dependents. The tale was diffusely told. Evellin listened with deep ...
— The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 - An Historical Novel • Jane West

... of their ports consistent with their treaties, or that we can make of them without giving open cause of complaint to England; and it being so difficult to keep our privateers within those bounds, we submit it to consideration, whether it would not be better to forbear cruising on their coasts, and bringing prizes in here, till an open war takes place, which, though by no means certain, seems every now and then to be apprehended on both sides; witness among other circumstances, the recall ...
— The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, Vol. I • Various

... lechery, Now in the world be made commendable; And thus they leave of angels the heavenly company. Every man liveth so after his own pleasure, And yet of their life they be not sure. I see the more that I them forbear The worse they are from year to year. All that liveth appaireth fast, Therefore I will in all the haste Have a reckoning of every man's person, For, and I leave the people thus alone In their life and wicked ...
— Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse • Various

... was ready to goe, it was observed Liford was long in writing, & sente many letters, and could not forbear to comunicate to his intimats such things as made them laugh in their sleeves, and thought he had done ther errand sufficiently. The Gov^r and some other of his freinds knowing how things stood in England, and what hurt these things might doe, tooke ...
— Bradford's History of 'Plimoth Plantation' • William Bradford

... unless you are one of those self-conceited people who are quickly observant of faults in others, but oblivious to faults in yourself; and now having found out all of each others imperfections, forbear. ...
— The Wedding Ring - A Series of Discourses for Husbands and Wives and Those - Contemplating Matrimony • T. De Witt Talmage

... say all this wou'd be done, if Men wou'd but own themselves oblig'd, and wou'd therefore resolve to behave, like reasonable Creatures: And yet this is a Point as hard to bring about, as if we were arguing with Hottentots, and persuading Tartars to forbear publick Plunders, and to have some regard to Right and Wrong, and the real Happiness and Misery of themselves ...
— A Dialogue Between Dean Swift and Tho. Prior, Esq. • Anonymous

... to be quite good enough for him It is whispered that our literary friend has played a conspicuous part in some recent events on the coast of Africa, though his extreme and well known modesty renders him indisposed to speak of the affair; but we forbear ourselves out of respect to a sensibility that we ...
— Homeward Bound - or, The Chase • James Fenimore Cooper

... of so amusing a character occurred soon after my return to Helena, that I cannot forbear narrating it here. Among the specimens of silica which I brought home were several dark globules about the size of nutmegs. I exhibited these to a noted physician of Helena, Dr. Hovaker, and soon after the return of Mr. Gillette from ...
— The Discovery of Yellowstone Park • Nathaniel Pitt Langford

... be sanguine as to his good resolutions. I as firmly resolved, when I first shook from my feet the dust of Civita Vecchia, that I never again would enter its gates, as I ever did to do or forbear any act whatever. But, after a tedious and ineffectual attempt to make up a party of Americans to come through from Rome to Florence direct, I was at last obliged to knock under. All the seats by Diligence or Mail on that ...
— Glances at Europe - In a Series of Letters from Great Britain, France, Italy, - Switzerland, &c. During the Summer of 1851. • Horace Greeley

... of mercy, can there be Mercy still reserved for me? Can my God his wrath forbear? Me, the chief of ...
— "In Darkest England and The Way Out" • General William Booth

... sad days for us, as you say, and even yet we are feeling rather stunned by the suddenness of this trouble, and have not been able to think out definite plans for your future. It was necessary to tell you the bare fact, but you must be patient and forbear from questioning for a few days. We shall not keep you in suspense longer ...
— Etheldreda the Ready - A School Story • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey

... let's say no more about it!" said I. "We're neither one of us to mend the other—that's the truth! We must just bear and forbear, man Alan. O, but my stitch is ...
— Kidnapped • Robert Louis Stevenson

... this second section, which is the vital part of the bill. Without it, it would scarcely be worth the paper on which the bill is written. A law without a penalty, without a sanction, is of little value to any body. What good does it do for the Legislature to say, 'Do this, and forbear to do that,' if no consequence is to follow the act of disobedience? This is the vitality of the bill. What is the objection that is made to it, and which seems even to have staggered some friends of the measure? It is because it reads in the first ...
— History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States • Wiliam H. Barnes

... pastures, the snowy Balkan summits bounding the north, and lower ranges of hills the south. The fields, clothed in the brightest verdure of spring, gave promise of unsurpassed abundance; and in view of the inspiring scenes before us, we could not forbear exclaiming, with the Psalmist: 'Thou crownest the year with thy goodness, and thy paths drop fatness. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they ...
— History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions To The Oriental Churches, Volume II. • Rufus Anderson

... a while upon my friend's remarks, in a tone of exultation said,—"Do you think, then, I could ever prevail on my people to forbear, when they saw a likely flock, from laying violent hands on it; or could I resist so favourable an opportunity of revenge? Nay, more; if we were then tamely to tie up our hands, do you think that Bulderent and his men would consent to do the same? No, no, old man," he continued, with ...
— A Voyage to the Moon • George Tucker

... attendants, most of whom carried hawks on their "fists" as a present to Charles. The strangeness of this sight caused the mob to jeer, upon which the diarist characteristically remarks, "but lord! to see the absurd nature of Englishmen that cannot forbear laughing and jeering at every thing that looks strange." Later on he makes a note of having seen the ambassador's retinue at York House engaged in a manner that does not speak well for their habits ...
— London and the Kingdom - Volume II • Reginald R. Sharpe

... of the last revision' which Johnson left to him in his will, the dedication that poor, loving Goldsmith placed in the 'Deserted Village,' and the tears which five years after his death even Burke could not forbear ...
— A History of Art for Beginners and Students: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture - Painting • Clara Erskine Clement

... lords of fear, Who work your iron will as well As once ye did with sword and spear, With rifled gun and rending shell,— Masters of sea and land, forbear The fierce ...
— The Poems of Henry Van Dyke • Henry Van Dyke

... shall be glad to do what honour urgeth; Grind on alone, if you will give me carte-blanche, Make room for JUSTIN, and forbear to meddle ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 31, 1891 • Various

... before, had met with a like disgrace, and about whom he had composed derisive verses? Would not the lieutenant Plautus now rejoice to make retaliatory odes? Would it not b e better, then, after all, to forbear any mention of the matter, and, letting its announcement take the usual chance course, to devote this night, at least, to unbroken festivity? But what if ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... having lain some time, and seeing the elephants gone, I got up, and found I was upon a long and broad hill, almost covered with the bones and teeth of elephants. I doubted not but that this was the burial place of the elephants, and that they carried me thither on purpose to tell me that I should forbear to kill them, as now I knew where to get their teeth without inflicting injury on them. I did not stay on the hill, but turned toward the city; and after having traveled a day and a night, ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments • Anonymous

... no one doubted—his grandfather's right hand, the staff and stay of the whole household—that Davie should be found turning aside, ever so little, from what was open and right, hurt the minister greatly. He loved the lad too well to forbear from reproof, or at least a caution, so he stayed till the others had left the wood to say a word to him. This was not his first visit to the camp, for Davie and he were friends, and Mr Maxwell had proved his friendship ...
— David Fleming's Forgiveness • Margaret Murray Robertson

... "Forbear, my child, this desperate woe, And turn to God and grace; Well can devotion's heavenly glow Convert ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 • Various

... and I was resolved to make the Mallabar Course as soon as possible, for the Advantage of the Land and Sea Winds. I had one Passenger aboard, a sad troublesome wicked Fellow, whose Behaviour was so bad, that I could hardly forbear using him ill. I forbid my Officers keeping Company with him; but Mr. B——s would do it at all Events. I turn'd him once off the Quarter-Deck for being with him there, yet that did not avail. I came out one Night about half an Hour past ...
— Great Pirate Stories • Various

... forbear placing on record this testimony to the high mental and the kindly qualities of my beloved father, who might have passed for a misanthrope or a fool. He was a man of generous nature and powerful intellect, ...
— Uncle Silas - A Tale of Bartram-Haugh • J.S. Le Fanu

... all our Tragedies, the audience cannot forbear laughing, when the Actors are to die. 'Tis the most comic ...
— An English Garner - Critical Essays & Literary Fragments • Edited by Professor Arber and Thomas Seccombe

... others, and to take an interest in their daily affairs. People affected to find him changed, and vastly for the better. "He's had enough to sober him." "It is well he has been warned, and heeds it." "God will visit with judgments, until the thoughtless forbear," and other profound and Christian remarks were made concerning him. As if Providence would cut off the best and most promising, for such indirect and uncertain good as might, or might not be produced ...
— Bart Ridgeley - A Story of Northern Ohio • A. G. Riddle

... is tinctured with some real though not radical defects. The limits of a letter would not suffer me to go fully into an examination of them; nor would the discussion be entertaining or profitable. I therefore forbear to touch upon it. With regard to the two great points, the pivots upon which the whole machine must move, my creed ...
— Life And Times Of Washington, Volume 2 • John Frederick Schroeder and Benson John Lossing

... doubtless hoped, would be a long series of family pictures. The day after the conversation above recorded they visited the painter's rooms. A servant ushered them into an apartment where, though the artist himself was not visible, there were personages whom they could hardly forbear greeting with reverence. They knew, indeed, that the whole assembly were but pictures, yet felt it impossible to separate the idea of life and intellect from such striking counterfeits. Several of the portraits were known to them either as distinguished characters of the day or their ...
— Twice Told Tales • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... periodicals. We might indeed make it more interesting by incidents and anecdotes, drawn from those of her early associates who love to dwell on the rich promise of her childhood and youth; but by doing so, we should incur the risk of intruding on the sacredness of the family circle; and we forbear. ...
— Lives of the Three Mrs. Judsons • Arabella W. Stuart

... can find all they wish of Tolstoy's psychology in Merejkowski's book. One thing we cannot forbear dwelling upon—Dostoievsky's significance in any discussion of Tolstoy. Dostoievsky was a profounder nature, greater than Tolstoy, though he was not the finished literary artist. All that Tolstoy tried to be, Dostoievsky was. He did not "go to the people" (that pose of dilettantish ...
— Ivory Apes and Peacocks • James Huneker

... moment the stone may slip, and the edge will take off a row of fingers as clean as the guillotine. Tibbald, of course, had his joke about that part of the machinery which is called the 'damsel.' He was a righteous man enough as millers go, but your miller was always a bit of a knave; nor could he forbear from boasting to me how he had been half an hour too soon for ...
— Round About a Great Estate • Richard Jefferies

... petticoats; men shall squeak upon theatres with female voices, and women corrupt virgins; lords shall knot and cut paper; and even the northern people.........:" A Greek phrase (which for modesty's sake I forbear to translate) which denotes a vice too ...
— The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers • Jonathan Swift

... better right in the family-row than Thomas Nash, his grandson-in-law? Might not one or both of them have been laid under the nameless stone? But it is dangerous trifling with Shakspeare's dust; so I forbear to meddle further with the grave, (though the prohibition makes it tempting,) and shall let whatever bones be in it rest in peace. Yet I must needs add that the inscription on the bust seems to imply that Shakspeare's ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 63, January, 1863 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... was restless, as was usually the case with him when he was meditating a new application of his material. As these periods of incubation were usually followed by a prostrating sickness, his wife urged him to forbear, and endeavor to compose his mind to sleep. "Sleep!" said he, "how can I sleep while twenty human beings are drowning every hour, and I am the man who can save them?" It was long his endeavor to invent some article which every man, woman, and child would necessarily wear, and which would ...
— Famous Americans of Recent Times • James Parton

... seized upon the casket. The venerable archbishop laid his hand upon his arm, and made a last remonstrance. 'Forbear, my son!' said he; 'desist while there is yet time. Look not into the mysterious decrees of Providence. God has hidden them in mercy from our sight, and it is impious to rend the veil by which they ...
— Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, March 1844 - Volume 23, Number 3 • Various

... make some protestation—perhaps even to claim some reward. But the instinct which made him forbear even in thought to take advantage of the duty laid upon him, which dominated even his miserable passion for her, and made it subservient to his exaltation of honor; this epaulet of the officer, ...
— Maruja • Bret Harte

... can scarcely forbear remarking, that the translator of Vidocq has used various words which have been considered by English writers as Americanisms; such as to progress, to approbate, and lengthy; also chicken-fighting for cock-fighting. ...
— The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 • Various

... for some sign, and Patricia in her corner was delighted at the Babel which answered her. Cries of "Of course we will!" "Dee-lighted!" "Take all the time you want!" mingled with applause and stamping, until Elinor could not forbear ...
— Miss Pat at School • Pemberton Ginther

... sound in all the house, I could not forbear listening for the cry of those long white rippling waves Dragging up their strength to break on the ...
— Japanese Prints • John Gould Fletcher

... wore it, was her national attire. Behind her, but in deep shadow, was the outline of a masculine figure; but the features of this latter personage it was not possible to distinguish. Franz could not forbear breaking in upon the apparently interesting conversation passing between the countess and Albert, to inquire of the former if she knew who was the fair Albanian opposite, since beauty such as hers was well worthy of being observed by either sex. "All I can tell about her," replied ...
— The Count of Monte Cristo • Alexandre Dumas, Pere

... Fri. Forbear such cruel Words— How can you entertain a Thought so Vile Of him whom so long you have call'd your Friend? May all the Blesings Heaven can bestow On us poor Mortals in this World below, Crown all your Days, and may you nothing see But flowing ...
— The City Bride (1696) - Or The Merry Cuckold • Joseph Harris

... more solemn character; though it must be acknowledged that, in spite of all my endeavors, the maiden weeps oftener than she smiles. At such moments I forbear to press the holy songs; but there are many sweet and comfortable periods of satisfactory communication, when the ears of the savages are astounded with the ...
— The Last of the Mohicans • James Fenimore Cooper

... the ashes of the old. Skiddy had no more illusions in respect to this romantic-minded humbug and semi-pirate; but the man was likable, tremendously likable, and, in spite of himself, the little consul could not forbear suffering some of the pangs of remorse. The world was so big, so wide, with such a sufficiency of room for all (even romantic-minded humbugs and semi-pirates), and it was hard that Providence should have singled him out to clip this eagle's wings. There was something, ...
— Wild Justice: Stories of the South Seas • Lloyd Osbourne

... "Forbear," said I, "she is not thine to-day; Subdue thyself in silence to await her; If thou dare call her from Death's side away Thou art no Love, ...
— Poems: New and Old • Henry Newbolt

... unmarried, his mother had been a teacher, and one of her experiences when so occupied was so remarkable that I can not forbear quoting it: ...
— From Canal Boy to President - Or The Boyhood and Manhood of James A. Garfield • Horatio Alger, Jr.

... and the happiest pair Will find occasion to forbear; And something, every day they live, To pity, and perhaps forgive. 739 ...
— Handy Dictionary of Poetical Quotations • Various

... marshmallow and jujube lozenges. The under-governors and the first valet de chambre requested her not to give the Dauphin anything, as he was to receive no food of any kind without the consent of the faculty. I forbear to describe the wound this prohibition inflicted upon the Queen; she felt it the more deeply because she was aware it was unjustly believed she gave a decided preference to the Duc de Normandie, whose ruddy health and amiability did, in truth, form a ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre

... Mr. Queed. An intense and strictly feminine curiosity filled her soul to know something of the nature of that work which demanded so stern a noiselessness. Observing rigorously the printed Rule of the Dining-Room, she could not forbear to pilfer glance after glance at the promulgator of it. Mr. Queed was writing, not reading, to-night. He wrote very slowly on half-size yellow pads, worth seventy-five cents a dozen, using the books only for reference. Now he tore off a sheet only partly filled ...
— Queed • Henry Sydnor Harrison

... from either bank; But friends and foes in dumb surprise, With parted lips and straining eyes, Stood gazing where he sank; And when above the surges They saw his crest appear, All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, And even the ranks of Tuscany Could scarce forbear ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6 • Charles H. Sylvester

... the greatest earthly blessing. A wife never makes a greater mistake than when she endeavors to coerce her husband with other weapons than those of love and affection. Those weapons are a sure "pull," if he has anything human left in him. Forbear mutual upbraidings. In writing letters during temporary separation let nothing contrary to love and sincere affection be expressed; such letters from a wife have a most powerful emotional effect, sometimes little ...
— Sparkling Gems of Race Knowledge Worth Reading • Various

... it closer, both you and I; Let us visit the nearest altar first, Whence the yellow fires flicker and burst, Like the flames from molten ore that spring; We may stand in the pale of the outer ring, But forbear to trespass within the inner, Lest the sins of the past should find out the sinner. [They approach the first altar, and stand within the outer circle which surrounds it, and ...
— Poems • Adam Lindsay Gordon

... studies is somewhat prejudicially visible in both the romances I have referred to; and the external and dramatic colourings which belong to fiction are too often forsaken for the inward and subtile analysis of motives, characters, and actions. The workman was not sufficiently master of his art to forbear the vanity of parading the wheels of the mechanism, and was too fond of calling attention to the minute and tedious operations by which the movements were to be performed and the result obtained. I believe that an author is generally ...
— Devereux, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... hurt my flesh," than Foster rose, indignant at the imposture he was practising on his deluded followers, and knocked down Dorrel with his fist. Dorrel, in great trepidation, and almost senseless, attempted to rise, when he received a second blow, at which he cried for mercy. Foster engaged to forbear, on condition that he would renounce his doctrines, but continued beating him. Soon a short parley ensued, when Dorrel consented, and did renounce his doctrines in the hearing of all his astonished followers. He further told them, that his object was to see what fools he could make of mankind. ...
— The Book of Religions • John Hayward

... whole, if rather hasty and prejudging, which is a different thing from prejudice at the worst. And we have great sympathies in common, and I am inclined to look up to you in many things, and to learn as much of everything as you will teach me. On the other hand you must prepare yourself to forbear and to forgive—will you? While I throw off the ceremony, I hold ...
— The Letters of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett, Vol. 1 (of 2) 1845-1846 • Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Barrett

... straightway the uproar was silenced, As he commanded peace, and rebuked with a fatherly sternness. "Has, then, misfortune," he cried, "not yet so bound us together, That we have finally learned to bear and forbear one another, Though each one, it may be, do not measure his share of the labor? He that is happy, forsooth, is contentious! Will sufferings never Teach you to cease from your brawls of old between brother and brother? Grudge not one to another a place on the soil of the stranger; Rather divide what ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... he did of Homer, "Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, plenius, et melius Chrysippo, et Crantore dicit." I shall content myself upon this particular theme with three only, one out of his Odes, the other out of his Satires, the third out of his Epistles, and shall forbear to collect the suffrages of all other poets, which may be found scattered up and down through all their writings, and especially in Martial's. But I must not omit to make some excuse for the bold undertaking of my own unskilful pencil upon the beauties of a face that has been drawn ...
— Cowley's Essays • Abraham Cowley

... church festival is no longer frowned upon, as in years past, yet it has been little regarded, especially in the church of which Nathan is a member. As the saddler mounted the steps of his shop, he felt the blood so rush along his limbs, and tingle in his fingers, that he could not forbear standing without the door for a moment, as if to enjoy the triumph of the warmth within him over the cold morning air. The little stone church which Nathan attends stands in the same square with his shop, and nearly opposite. It ...
— Autumn Leaves - Original Pieces in Prose and Verse • Various

... as I naked stood, For one of the seven pillars before the flood. Such characters and hieroglyphics were In one night worn, that thou mightst justly swear I'd slept in cere-cloth, or at Bedlam, where The madmen lodge in straw. I'll not forbear To tell thee all; his wild impress and tricks Like Speed's old Britons made me look, or Picts; His villanous, biting, wire-embraces Had seal'd in me more strange forms and faces Than children see in dreams, or thou hast read In arras, puppet-plays, and gingerbread, ...
— Poems of Henry Vaughan, Silurist, Volume II • Henry Vaughan

... vile din? If so be I would speak to my horse could he hear me? Nay, that he could not. When I be Lord Mayor no smith shall strike on anvil in my presence. And when I pass by, let the carpenters cease to drive their nails; let all the armorers cease their hammering; let the coopers forbear to hoop their casks; and then can I gather my wits together, which is more than I can now do." He was right as to the din; for here in these narrow lanes the craftsmen lived and worked. Each one had his tenement of one room above ...
— A Boy's Ride • Gulielma Zollinger

... her patients, feeling their pulses, so to speak, and taking their physical and moral temperatures. He must keep up their morale with entertaining yarns, he must restrain their too ambitious experience, must protect them from their own foolhardiness. He must have the charity to forbear deriding their stupidity. He must be as courageous and resourceful as the old-time guides, though his trials may not be so spectacular. A guide soon plumbs a man's character and fathoms its weakness and ...
— A Mountain Boyhood • Joe Mills

... Mexico, the character of her population, and the probable effect of her absorption by the United States; but the length to which our article has been drawn in the statement of preliminary facts—a statement made necessary by the general disregard of Mexican matters by most Americans—warns us to forbear. We may return to the subject, should the action of Congress on the President's recommendation lead to the placing of the Mexican question on the list of those questions that must be decided by the event of the national ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 5, No. 28, February, 1860 • Various

... contrary, had lightened considerably. It was delightful to see the Graevenitz put down for once! They drove home through the meadows, past the blossoming orchards, and never had the Landhofmeisterin been more charming; even the Erbprincessin could not forbear a smile at her witty sayings, and the Erbprinz laughed gaily. The Prussian King rode past the coach, glaring at its occupants with his protuberant eyes, and the Landhofmeisterin adroitly launched a witticism just as his Majesty was passing, ...
— A German Pompadour - Being the Extraordinary History of Wilhelmine van Graevenitz, - Landhofmeisterin of Wirtemberg • Marie Hay

... something in the silent personality of the man arrested her. She could not forbear a look at him over her shoulder. "Are you—Oh! of course, I remember—" for she had recognized the dress and cap ...
— The Marriage of William Ashe • Mrs. Humphry Ward

... very wroth, scarce refrained from falling upon them and killing them on the spot; and indeed, but that he doubted how he should afterwards fare himself, he had given way to the vehemence of his anger, and so done. Nor, though he so far mastered himself, could he forbear recourse to the statute, thereby to compass that which he might not otherwise lawfully compass, to wit, the death of his lady. Wherefore, having all the evidence needful to prove her guilt, he took no further ...
— The Decameron, Vol. II. • Giovanni Boccaccio

... glory though it is not expedient, but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord—for if I should desire to glory I shall not be foolish; for I shall speak the truth; but I forbear, lest any man should account of me above that which he seeth me to be, or heareth from me. And by reason of the exceeding greatness of the revelations—wherefore that I should not be exalted overmuch, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, ...
— Cosmic Consciousness • Ali Nomad

... highly criminal, the Bible everywhere testifies. It says, "If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it?" And shall not he "render ...
— Thoughts on Missions • Sheldon Dibble

... took to spare her painful reminders, the way in which he called attention to the fact that he no longer went out in the evening, and took pains to tell her where he had been during the day, served only to remind her the more forcibly of his wrong-doing. Sometimes she longed to ask him to forbear,—to say to him: "Do not protest too much." Faith was shattered within her, and the horrible agony of the priest who doubts, and seeks at the same time to remain faithful to his vows, betrayed itself in her bitter smile, her ...
— Fromont and Risler, Complete • Alphonse Daudet

... general, and all his neighbors past and present in particular. Even the babe unborn did not escape some unsavory epithets in the way of vaticination. I sat down, meaning to write you an essay on "The Right of Private Judgment as distinguished from the Right of Public Vituperation"; but I forbear. It may be that I do not understand ...
— The Function Of The Poet And Other Essays • James Russell Lowell

... ever—all but one that yet I hum to the children at my knee. It was one of John Splendid's; the words and air were his as well as the performance of them, and though the English is a poor language wherein to render any fine Gaelic sentiment, I cannot forbear to give something of its semblance here. He called it in the Gaelic "The Sergeant of Pikes," and a few of its verses as I mind ...
— John Splendid - The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn • Neil Munro

... but that this Millere He would his wordes for no man forbear, But told his churlish* tale in his mannere; *boorish, rude Me thinketh, that I shall rehearse it here. And therefore every gentle wight I pray, For Godde's love to deem not that I say Of evil intent, but that I must rehearse Their tales all, be ...
— The Canterbury Tales and Other Poems • Geoffrey Chaucer

... in some cases is not only lawful, but very expedient, yea, needful, and required from us as a duty; but that swearing which our Lord had expressly prohibited to His disciples, and which thence, questionless, the brethren to whom St. James did write did well understand themselves obliged to forbear, having learned so in the first catechisms of Christian institution; that is, needless and heedless swearing in ordinary conversation, a practice then frequent in the world, both among Jews and Gentiles; ...
— Sermons on Evil-Speaking • Isaac Barrow

... ancestors; for in Miltoun was the blood not only of the Caradocs and Fitz-Harolds, but of most other prominent families in the kingdom, all of whom, in those ages before money made the man, must have had a forbear conspicuous by reason of qualities, not always fine, ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... briefly: also I might record (but I forbear) similar condescensions at Frogmore; as also with reference to my little Masques of the Seasons, and the Nations—wherein Corbould was pictorially so efficient, and Miss Hildyard so helpful in the costumes—both at Osborne ...
— My Life as an Author • Martin Farquhar Tupper

... be thought I was not very well pleased with all this, though I could scarce forbear smiling at a kind of innocency in these old intriguers. But it was not my view to have undergone so many sorrows for the advancement of Sheriff Miller or to make a revolution in the Parliament House: and ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 11 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... well of, has done us so much good, as we should never have known how to do ourselves? Which was so sweetly delivered by my Lord Chancellor Phosphorus to the people, that I dare say there was never a one of them could forbear to do as I do-and, it please your fatherhoods, they be tears of joy. Aye, my Lord Archon shall walk the streets (if it be for his ease I mean) with a switch, while the people run after him and pray for ...
— The Commonwealth of Oceana • James Harrington

... than two hours Max Kapfer examined Polatkin & Scheikowitz' sample line and made so judicious a selection of moderate-priced garments that Polatkin could not forbear expressing his admiration, albeit the total amount of the purchase ...
— Elkan Lubliner, American • Montague Glass



Words linked to "Forbear" :   ancestor, antecedent, abstain, leave behind, leave alone, help oneself, hold back, sit out, forebear, act, save, grandparent, root, leave, help, great grandparent, ascendant, spare, stand by, let it go, ascendent



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