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forby

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forby¹

  • /fəˈbʌɪ/ UK

Where it comes from

From Middle English forby, forbi, of Middle Low German or North Germanic origin, equivalent to fore- + by. Compare Saterland Frisian foarbie (“beyond, past”), West Frisian foarby (“over, beyond, past”), Dutch voorbij (“beyond, past”), Low German vörbi, vörbie (“over, up, gone, finished, past”), German vorbei (“over, gone, past”), Danish forbi, Swedish förbi. More at fore, by.

adjective more forby · most forby · foreby · forbye

  1. Northern England, Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal Uncommon; out of the ordinary; extraordinary; superior. He's a forbye man.

adverb more forby · most forby · foreby · forbye

  1. Northern England, Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal Past; by; beyond. To see the world and folk that went forby, […]
  2. Northern England, Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal Uncommonly; exceptionally. He was forby kind.

preposition foreby · forbye

  1. Northern England, Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal Beyond; past; more than; greater than; over and above; moreover.
  2. Northern England, Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal, of time Past; gone by; over.
  3. Northern England, Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal Near; beside; by, close to. Those were the two sonnes of Acrates old / Who meeting earst with Archimago slie, / Foreby that idle strond, of him were told, / That he, wich earst them combatted, was Guyon bold.

    Similar: next to

  4. Northern England, Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal On one side; out of the way.
  5. Northern England, Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal Besides; in addition to; as well as; not to mention. There was other six forby me.

    Similar: beyond

  6. Northern England, Scotland, UK, archaic, dialectal With the exception of; not taking into account.

    Similar: barring

Similar: on top of, except for, save for

Forby²

proper noun Forbys

  1. A surname.

Thesaurus

preposition

Similar: on top of, except for, save for

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Cite this
MLA

"forby." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/forby. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

forby. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/forby

Chicago

"forby." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/forby.

BibTeX
@misc{forby_2026,
  title = {forby},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/forby},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}