In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
FORBID
forbid, prohibit, interdict, proscribe, veto, disallow, nix
(verb) command against; “I forbid you to call me late at night”; “Mother vetoed the trip to the chocolate store”; “Dad nixed our plans”
prevent, forestall, foreclose, preclude, forbid
(verb) keep from happening or arising; make impossible; “My sense of tact forbids an honest answer”; “Your role in the projects precludes your involvement in the competitive project”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Verb
forbid (third-person singular simple present forbids, present participle forbidding, simple past forbade or forbad or forbid, past participle forbidden)
(transitive) To disallow; to proscribe.
(ditransitive) To deny, exclude from, or warn off, by express command.
(transitive) To oppose, hinder, or prevent, as if by an effectual command.
(transitive, obsolete) To accurse; to blast.
(transitive, obsolete) To defy; to challenge.
Usage notes
• Especially when talking about a person, the expression is not allowed to is much more common than the very formal is forbidden to/is forbidden from.
• This is a catenative verb that takes the to infinitive or the gerund (-ing) when the person is mentioned from whom something is forbidden, and it takes the gerund (-ing) when such a person is not mentioned. See English catenative verbs. Examples
The management forbids employees from smoking/to smoke in the office. (Active; those subject to prohibition are identified)
Employees are forbidden from smoking/to smoke in the office. (Passive; those subject to prohibition are identified)
The management forbids smoking in the office. (Active; those subject to prohibition are not identified)
Smoking in the office is forbidden. (Passive; those subject to prohibition are not identified)
Synonyms
• prohibit
• disallow
• ban
• veto
• See also prohibit
Source: Wiktionary
For*bid", v. t. [imp. Forbade; p. p. Forbidden (Forbid, [Obs.]); p. pr. & vb. n. Forbidding.] Etym: [OE. forbeden, AS. forbeódan; pref. for- + beódan to bid; akin to D. verbieden, G. verbieten, Icel., fyrirbjoedha, forboedha, Sw. förbjuda, Dan. forbyde. See Bid, v. t.]
1. To command against, or contrary to; to prohibit; to interdict. More than I have said . . . The leisure and enforcement of the time Forbids to dwell upon. Shak.
2. To deny, exclude from, or warn off, by express command; to command not to enter. Have I not forbid her my house Shak.
3. To oppose, hinder, or prevent, as if by an effectual command; as, an impassable river forbids the approach of the army. A blaze of glory that forbids the sight. Dryden.
4. To accurse; to blast. [Obs.] He shall live a man forbid. Shak.
5. To defy; to challenge. [Obs.] L. Andrews.
Syn.
– To prohibit; interdict; hinder; preclude; withold; restrain; prevent. See Prohibit.
For*bid", v. i.
Definition: To utter a prohibition; to prevent; to hinder. "I did not or forbid." Milton.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
1 June 2025
BACKFIRE
(verb) come back to the originator of an action with an undesired effect; “Your comments may backfire and cause you a lot of trouble”; “the political movie backlashed on the Democrats”
Coffee Trivia
