forslow

English

Alternative forms

forsloe, foreslow, fore-slow

Etymology

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

Verb

forslow (third-person singular simple present forslows, present participle forslowing, simple past and past participle forslowed) (obsolete)

(transitive) To be dilatory about; put off; postpone; neglect; omit.
- 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:
  [I]f you can thinke vpon any preſent meanes for his deliuerie, doe not forſlow it.
(transitive) To delay; hinder; impede; obstruct.
- 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
  But by no meanes my way I would forslow / For ought that ever she could doe or say […]
- 1682, John Dryden, Epistles, section XIII:
  The wond'ring Nereids, though they rais'd no storm, / Foreslow'd her passage, to behold her form.
(intransitive) To be slow or dilatory; loiter.
- 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):
  Foreslow no longer, make we hence amaine.

Synonyms

(To be dilatory about): See also Thesaurus:procrastinate
(To delay): See also Thesaurus:hinder
(To be slow or dilatory): See also Thesaurus:loiter