forsake

verb

1. 1

   To abandon, to give up, to leave (permanently), to renounce (someone or something).

   Doeſt thou forſake the deuill and all his workes? / Aunſwere. I forſake them.

   Such hazard now muſt doting Tarqvin make, / Pawning his honor to obtaine his luſt, / And for himſelfe, himſelfe he muſt forſake.

   Thou lou'd the Church once, and didſt God adore, / But now forſakest him, thou lou'd before.

   And about the ninth houre, Jeſus cried with a loud voyce, ſaying, Eli, Eli, lamaſabachthani, that is to ſay, My God, my God, why haſt thou forſaken mee?

2. 2

   obsoleteTo decline or refuse (something offered).

   The youthful Bull muſt wander in the Wood; / Behind the Mountain, or beyond the Flood: / [...] / With two fair Eyes his Miſtreſs burns his Breaſt; / He looks and languiſhes, and leaves his Reſt; / Forſakes his Food, and pining for the Laſs, / Is joyleſs of the Grove, and ſpurns the growing Graſs.

3. 3

   obsoleteTo avoid or shun (someone or something).

   This was that Pascall lambe [i.e., Jesus] whose loue for vs so stood, / That on the mount of Caluerie, for vs did shed his blood: / Where hanging on the Crosse, no shame he did forsake, / Till death giuen him by pearcing speare, an ende of life did make.

4. 4

   obsoleteTo cause disappointment to; to be insufficient for (someone or something).

   Theſe birds, on the continent of America, continue to flutter the year round; as their food, which is the honey of flowers, never forſakes them in thoſe warm latitudes where they are found.

Forms

past tense

forsook

past participle

forsaken

present participle

forsaking

third person singular

forsakes