Forego

//fɔɹˈɡoʊ// verb

verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To precede, to go before.

    "pleasing remembrance of a thought foregone"

  2. 2
    Alternative spelling of forgo; to abandon, to relinquish alt-of, alternative, often, proscribed

    "[…] for on no other terms does she desire a reconciliation, but will sooner forego all the hopes to which her birth entitles her, and get her bread by service, than ever yield to become the wife of the ——."

  3. 3
    lose (something) or lose the right to (something) by some error, offense, or crime wordnet
  4. 4
    do without or cease to hold or adhere to wordnet
  5. 5
    be earlier in time; go back further wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
antecedeprecedeabandonabdicateabdicateantedate

Antonyms

All antonyms
follow

Example

More examples

"Many athletes forego a social life, so they can achieve their performance goals."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English forgan, from Old English foregān, equivalent to fore- + go.

Etymology 2

See forgo

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.