forgive

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verb [transitive] British English pronunciation: forgive

/fə(r)ˈɡɪv/

present tense
I/you/we/they	forgive
he/she/it	forgives
present participle	forgiving
past tense	forgave
past participle	forgiven

1
to decide that you will not be angry with someone who has offended, upset, or harmed you
His children have never fully forgiven him.
forgive someone for doing something:
She eventually forgave him for forgetting her birthday.
forgive yourself:
John has never forgiven himself for the accident.
forgive someone something:
They're nice boys, so we tend to forgive them their occasional bad behaviour.
Thesaurus entry for this meaning of forgive
2
economics if a country or bank forgives a debt, they decide that the debt does not have to be paid back
Thesaurus entry for this meaning of forgive

phrases

someone could be forgiven for thinking/wondering/believing etc
used for saying that it is not surprising that someone thinks or believes something, even though they are wrong to do so
Voters could be forgiven for thinking that the major parties have no policies at all for the environment.
Thesaurus entry for this meaning of forgive
forgive and forget
to decide not to continue being angry about something that someone has done, and not to allow your memory of it to influence your future relationship
I might forgive and forget, but I'm more likely to get mad and get even.
Thesaurus entry for this meaning of forgive
forgive me (for doing something)/forgive my doing something
spoken
used when you want to say or do something that may offend the person you are talking to
Forgive me, but I must leave now.
Forgive me for asking, but how much did you pay for that vase?
Thesaurus entry for this meaning of forgive

This is the British English definition of forgive. View American English definition of forgive.

Change your default dictionary and thesaurus to American English.

View the pronunciation for forgive.

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