forswear

UK/fə(ɹ)ˈswɛə(ɹ)/US/fə(ɹ)ˈswɛə(ɹ)/

verbC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,167 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: forswearing, forswears

To forswear is to give something up by solemn promise. Forswear violence, forswear all claim to it, forswear drink.

The promise is the point — you can abandon a habit quietly, but you forswear it publicly and on oath. The past forms are forswore and forsworn, and to be forsworn also means to have broken an oath. The Old English sense was to swear falsely.

Definitions of forswear

1verbforswearTo give something up by solemn promise.C2
“He promised to forswear alcohol after the accident and hasn't had a drink since.”

forswear is a renouncing.

Where it comes from

Old English forswerian means to swear falsely, from for-, meaning away or wrongly, plus swear.

Old English
forswerian — to swear falsely
Middle English
forsweren
English, today
forswear

From Middle English forsweren, from Old English forswerian (“to swear falsely”). Cognate with Old Saxon farswerian, Old High German farsweren, German verschwören. More at for- + swear.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

forswear in the wild

The term comes from the Latin abjurare, "to forswear".
Abjuration
Brazil is one of many countries (and one of the last) to forswear nuclear weapons under the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Brazil and weapons of mass destruction
In 1179, he was forced to forswear his former alliance with Raymond of Toulouse and return to the fold of Alfonso of Aragon.
Roger II Trencavel
In the year of our reckoning, march 2026, the counsellor shall forswear the renewal of his sacred charge, leaving the city shrouded in a veil of dire uncertainty.
Gundolsheim

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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