FORGIVING • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Forgiving

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/fərgˈɪvɪŋ/ /fɔrgˈɪvɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Forgive v. t. (past forgave; past part. forgiven; pres. part. forgiving)

1.

To give wholly; to make over without reservation; to resign. "To them that list the world's gay shows I leave, And to great ones such folly do forgive."

2.

To give up resentment or claim to requital on account of (an offense or wrong); to remit the penalty of; to pardon; said in reference to the act forgiven. "And their sins should be forgiven them." "He forgive injures so readily that he might be said to invite them."

3.

To cease to feel resentment against, on account of wrong committed; to give up claim to requital from or retribution upon (an offender); to absolve; to pardon; said of the person offending. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." "I as free forgive you, as I would be fforgiven." Note: Sometimes both the person and the offense follow as objects of the verb, sometimes one and sometimes the other being the indirect object. "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." "Be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee."

Synonyms: See excuse.

adjective

Forgiving adj. Disposed to forgive; inclined to overlook offenses; mild; merciful; compassionate; placable; as, a forgiving temper.

See images of 'Forgiving'

Etymology of 'Forgiving'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Forgiving" Quotes from Famous Books

... say that Alice never did any wrong thing. She was, however, so sorry for a fault, she repented so soon, and then did all she could to repair it, that no one could help forgiving her. She had a trick of squinting now and then. Her mother thought that my curls perplexed the bright eyes under them; and, to prevent the evil, drew up all the pretty locks in a bunch, tied them together, and said, "Now, Alice, ...

— The Talkative Wig • Eliza Lee Follen

... friend! I have too much to be forgiven to feel any difficulty in forgiving the cruellest enemy that ever trampled on me: and you I have only to thank! You have no conception of the dreadful hell of my mind, and conscience, and body. You bid me pray. Oh, I do pray inwardly to be able to pray; ...

— The Opium Habit • Horace B. Day

... doctrine: it will be admitted that absolution is true in the lips of Christ, because of His Divinity. It will be said He was God, and God speaking on earth is the same thing as God speaking in heaven. No my brethren, it is not the same thing. Christ forgiving on earth is a new truth added to that of God's forgiving in heaven. It is not the same truth. The one is forgiveness by Deity; the other is the declaration of forgiveness by Humanity. He bade the palsied man walk, that they might know that "the Son of Man hath power on earth to ...

— Sermons Preached at Brighton - Third Series • Frederick W. Robertson

... bit his lip and instinctively stepped backward. Added to his ancestral creed of never forgiving such injury, came a rush of memory—the backward-surging picture of his homeless little sweetheart and all that she had endured. Then came the memory of his dead mother's teaching—teaching she had learned from her own mother, and she in turn from ...

— The Moccasin Maker • E. Pauline Johnson

... Mr. Conway. We quite admired you both. There," she said laughing at Ralph's confusion, "you need not be afraid about my not forgiving you for the remark. Everyone knows that Aunt Tabitha and we girls never get on very well together; and she does make herself dreadfully ridiculous, and I think it was too bad of Captain O'Connor putting ...

— One of the 28th • G. A. Henty

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