Dictionary

forslow en · VERB

Etymology

From Middle English forslowen, forslewen (“to neglect”), from Old English forslāwian, forslǣwan (“to be slow, unwilling, delay, put off”), equivalent to for- + slow.

Meanings

1. (obsolete, transitive) To be dilatory about; put off; postpone; neglect; omit.
   • [I]f you can thinke vpon any preſent meanes for his deliuerie, doe not forſlow it. 1599 (first performance), B. I. [i.e., Ben Jonson], The Comicall Satyre of Euery Man out of His Humor. […], London: […] [Adam Islip] for William Holme, […], published 1600, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii, signature [Q iiij], recto:
2. (obsolete, transitive) To delay; hinder; impede; obstruct.
   • The wond'ring Nereids, though they rais'd no storm, / Foreslow'd her passage, to behold her form. 1682, John Dryden, Epistles, section XIII:
   • But by no meanes my way I would forslow / For ought that ever she could doe or say […] 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To be slow or dilatory; loiter.
   • Foreslow no longer, make we hence amaine. c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

Forms