Meaning of forswink | Babel Free

Definitions

To exhaust by labour; overwork.

archaic, obsolete, poetic, transitive

Examples

“She is my goddess plain, And I her shepherd's swain, Albe[it] forswonk and forswat I am.”

“If indeed he had so turned from Latin texts to garden-tools, he would certainly have been forswunk.”

“Much of what Ms Sorkin performed was forswunk, and on the heavier side of angst as in Kaddish (in memory of Anna Frank) by Sokolow, which walked hand in hand with Messiaen's score into the deep blue sea where they solemnly sank, as did my spirits.”

“And they dried him out and hung him up. My, he swung. Blowing his nose for the lovers; forswunken, forswot.”

“At which point, Don said: "Sod this. If they don't bloody well want to be arrested for murder, then they can suit themselves. I'm buggered if I'm going to forswink myself."”

CEFR level