forslow

English

Alternative forms

• 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)

1. (transitive) To be dilatory about; put off; postpone; neglect; omit.
   • 1599 (first performance; published 1600), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Euery Man out of His Humour. A Comicall Satyre. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act V, scene viii:

     If you can think upon any present means for his delivery, do not foreslow it.

2. (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.

3. (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