Meaning of forspeak | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To injure or cause bad luck through immoderate praise or flattery; to affect with the curse of an evil tongue, which brings ill luck upon all objects of its praise.
   Northern-England, Scotland, dialectal, transitive
2. Alternative spelling of forespeak.
   alt-of, alternative, obsolete, transitive
3. To bewitch, to charm.
   obsolete, transitive
4. To forbid, to prohibit; to oppose.
   obsolete, transitive
5. To say bad things about; to slander.
   obsolete, transitive

Examples

“One is said to forspeak another, when he so commends him as to have⟳ a supposed influence⟳ in making him practically belie the commendation. If one highly praises a child for sweetness of temper, and the child soon after betrays ill humour; the person, who bestowed the praise⟳, is said to have⟳ forspokin the bairn.”

“"I take⟳ ye a' to witness, gude people," said Mortheugh, "that she threatens me wi' mischief, and forespeaks me. If onything but gude happens to me or my fiddle this night, I'll make⟳ it the blackest night's job she ever stirred in. [...]"”

“When a healthy child suddenly becomes sickly, and no one can account for the change⟳, the child is said to be "forespoken." Or when a stout man or woman becomes hypochondriac, or affected with nervous complaints, he or she is "forespoken." Some one has perhaps said "He's a bonny bairn," or "Thou ar' lookin weel the day;" but they have⟳ spoken with an ill tongue. They have⟳ neglected to add⟳, "God save⟳ the bairn," or, "Safe be thou," &c.”

“How are my powres fore-spoke? what strange distaste is this?”

“This Examinat confesseth that shee came to Ioane Gylles house, her Child being sicke, and that shee intreated this Examinat to look⟳ on the Child, and to tell⟳ her whether it was forspoken or no, and this Examinat said it was forspoken; but when the said Child died she cannot tell⟳.”

“Some call⟳ me witch, / And being ignorant of myself, they go / About to teach⟳ me how to be one; urging / That my bad tongue—by their bad usage made so— / Forspeaks their cattle, doth bewitch their corn, / Themselves, their servants, and their babes at nurse.”

“"Dinna forespeak them, woman! dinna forespeak them!" said the man with a dark frown, and with equal earnestness, but with a tinge of superstitious alarm in his voice and manner. "They wud fain hae your good word, an' no your evil tongue with them; and so come⟳, good wife, tell⟳ us what ken ye—what's biding them?—come⟳, what have⟳ they to do?"”

“Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the cunning man’s medical dealings was his readiness to diagnose a supernatural cause for the patient’s malady by saying that he was haunted by an evil spirit, a ghost, or ‘fairy’, or that he had been ‘overlooked’, ‘forspoken’, or, in plainer language, bewitched. Thus if any inhabitant of mid-sixteenth-century Maidstone suspected that he had been forspoken, he would go off for advice to one Kiterell, a sorcerer who lived at Bethersden, and specialised in such things: …”

“Thou haſt foreſpoke my being in theſe warres, / And ſay'ſt, it is not fit.”

“A mischiefe take⟳ thy tatling tongue, the Raven answerde tho. / Thy vaine forspeaking moves me not. And so he forth did go [...]”

“The same Henry of Ritchmond (after Henry the seavnth) I know⟳ not by what provydence or prophecy forsaw that his sonne Henry was not lyke to please⟳ god so well to have⟳ the kingdome established in his posterytye and thearfore matched his eldest Dawghter into Skotland thearby as yt wear⟳ forspeaking a happy conjunction of thease two noble realms [...]”

CEFR level