Search the Dictionary

Repelling approach; repulsive; raising abhorrence, aversion, or dislike; disagreeable; prohibiting or interdicting; as, a forbidding aspect; a forbidding formality; a forbidding air.

To hinder; to fend off; to avert; to prevent the approach of; to forbid or prohibit. See Forfend. God forefend it should ever be recorded in our history. Landor. It would be a far better work . . . to forefend the cruelty. I. Taylor.

A messenger sent before to give notice of the approach of others; a harbinger; a sign foreshowing something; a prognostic; as, the forerunner of a fever. Whither the forerunner in for us entered, even Jesus. Heb. vi. 20. My elder brothers, my forerunners, came. Dryden.

Exciting fear or apprehension; impressing dread; adapted to excite fear and deter from approach, encounter, or undertaking; alarming. They seemed to fear the formodable sight. Dryden. I swell my preface into a volume, and make it formidable, when you see so many pages behind. Drydn.

An uproar; a noisy quarrel; a disturbance; a brawl.

Any violent agitation of the mind approaching to distraction; violent and temporary derangement of the mental faculties; madness; rage. All else is towering frenzy and distraction. Addison. The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling. Shak.

ated, through a narrow opening between two of the mouth organs; uttered through a close approach, but not with a complete closure, of the organs of articulation, and hence capable of being continued or prolonged; -- said of certain consonantal sounds, as f, v, s, z, etc. -- n.

A Christian in general; -- used as a term of reproach by Mohammedans and Pagans. Byron.

To cast reproaches and sneering expressions; to rail; to utter taunting, sarcastic words; to flout; to fleer; to scoff. Fleer and gibe, and laugh and flout. Swift.

o halves, to share with another equally. -- To go it, to behave in a wild manner; to be uproarious; to carry on; also, to proceed; to make progress. [Colloq.] -- To go it alone (Card Playing), to play a hand without the assistance of one's partner. -- To go it blind. (a) To act in a rash, reckless, or headlong manner…

ral; a grand view; a grand conception. They are the highest models of expression, the unapproached masters of the grand style. M. Arnold.

nish Americans, a foreigner, esp. an Englishman or American; -- often used as a term of reproach.

e projecting solid angle formed by the meeting of two vaults, growing more obtuse as it approaches the summit.

A term of reproach, implying that one is fit to be hanged. [Obs.] Beau. & Fl.

e who makes a business of hanging; a public executioner; -- sometimes used as a term of reproach, without reference to office. Shak.

To prevent; to hinder; as, the evil approaches, and who can help it Swift.

as in politics, literature, philosophy, etc.; -- usually, but not necessarily, said in reproach. New opinions Divers and dangerous, which are heresies, And, not reformed, may prove pernicious. Shak. After the study of philosophy began in Greece, and the philosophers, disagreeing amongst themselves, had started many qu…

Halloo! attend! -- a call to excite attention, or to give notice of approach. "What noise there, ho" Shak. "Ho! who's within" Shak.

aired innocence and virtue; free from sinful affections; pure in heart; godly; pious; irreproachable; guiltless; acceptable to God. Now through her round of holy thought The Church our annual steps has brought. Keble. Holy Alliance (Hist.), a league ostensibly for conserving religion, justice, and peace in Europe, but…

g from an upright and laudable cause, or directed to a just and proper end; not base; irreproachable; fair; as, an honorable motive. Is this proceeding just and honorable Shak.