Dictionary

forlet en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English forleten (“forsake, reject, renounce, omit, lose, forgive”), from Old English forlǣtan (“to leave”), from Proto-Germanic *fralētaną (“to leave, dismiss”), equivalent to for- + let. Cognate with Scots forleet (“to forsake, abandon”), Saterland Frisian ferläite (“to forlet, abandon”), West Frisian forlitte (“to forlet”), Dutch verlaten (“to desert, abandon”), German verlassen (“to leave”), Swedish förlåta (“to excuse, forgive, remit”).

Meanings

1. (UK, archaic, dialectal, transitive) To abandon; give up; leave; leave behind; forsake; desert; neglect.
   • … whether his mind and his soul were deadly and perishing, or it were aye living and eternal; and again, about his good, what it was, and what good was best for him to do, and what evil to forlet. 1920, Alfred (King of England), Pope Gregory I, Paulus Orosius, King Alfred's books - Page 11
   • I soothly quoth, then say, to you, for that each such, he that forlets wife his, be-out unclean lust doing forth-lying thing, doeth (works) he doeth the same to sin, … 1807, The Gothic Gospel of saint Matthew
   • But, by my soul, I dare well swear His wretched life he shall forlet [...] 1834, Samuel Astley Dunham, A History of Europe During the Middle Ages - Volume 4:
   • [...] and then, if upon mature deliberation, when our mind is staid and our senses settled, the thing appear to be naught, we are to hate and abhor it, and in no wise either to forlet and put off, or altogether to omit and forbear correction, like as they refuse meats who have no stomach nor appetite to eat. 2014, Philemon Holland, Plutarch, Plutarch's Moralia - Page 121:
   • to forlet your sins
2. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, transitive) To forget.

Forms