Meaning of forget in English

forget

verb

/fɚˈɡet/ uk

/fəˈɡet/

present participle forgetting | past tense forgot | past participle forgotten

forget verb (NOT REMEMBER)

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B1 [ I or T ]

to be unable to remember a fact, something that happened, or how to do something:

I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name.

Let me write down that date before I forget it.

forget about I completely forgot about Jenny's party.

[ + (that) ] We had forgotten (that) she doesn't come on Thursdays.

I'm sorry, I was forgetting (= I had forgotten) you would be away in August.

[ + -ing verb ] She would never forget seeing the Himalayas for the first time.

[ + question word ] I've forgotten what you do next/how to do it.

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

to forget something

forgetI can't believe I've forgotten her birthday!
slip your mindI meant to tell you that he'd called, but it completely slipped my mind.
be on the tip of your tongueOh, what was that movie called? It's on the tip of my tongue.
escape youThe name of her book escapes me at the moment.
blank outThe dinner where he admitted the affair was so painful that I must have blanked it out.

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never forget a face

to be good at remembering who people are after you have seen them before:

Of course I recognize you. I never forget a face.

not forgetting

including:

This is where we keep all the books, not forgetting the magazines and newspapers.

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I'll write it down now so I won't forget.
We left in such a hurry that we forgot our tickets.
I feel so guilty about forgetting her birthday.
I want to forget the whole thing.
It's either Spanish or Portuguese that she speaks, but I've forgotten which.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Forgetting and forgetfulness

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forget verb (NOT DO)

A1 [ I + to infinitive, T ]

to not remember to do something:

Don't forget to lock the door.

Dad's always forgetting (to take) his pills.

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Don't forget to claim your traveling expenses after the interview.
Don't forget to feed the tomatoes.
Some prize idiot forgot to lock the door.
He had forgotten to plug the television into the mains socket.
He raged at us for forgetting to order a replacement.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Forgetting and forgetfulness

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forget verb (NOT BRING)

A2 [ T ]

to not bring something with you because you did not remember it:

I forgot my keys.

non-standard I forgot (= left) my wallet at home.

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When he got to the airport he found he'd forgotten his passport.
I then realized, to my absolute horror, that I had forgotten the present.
I've forgotten my umbrella - what a nuisance!
I realized too late that I'd forgotten the tickets.
I've forgotten my door-keys - we'd better try the window.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Forgetting and forgetfulness

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forget verb (STOP THINKING)

B1 [ I or T ]

to stop thinking about someone or something:

He tried to forget her.

forget about It seemed unlikely that the debt would ever be paid off so we just forgot about it.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Forgetting and forgetfulness

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forget verb (BEHAVE BADLY)

forget yourself

to act in a socially unacceptable way because you have lost control of your emotions:

He was so angry he forgot himself and swore loudly.

I apologize - I forgot myself!

I just forgot myself for a moment - blame it on the wine.

In all the excitement, I forgot myself and threw my arms around him.

In his enthusiasm he was apt to forget himself, and he frequently had to apologize later.

John, forgetting himself, suddenly burst into song.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Humiliating and degrading

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Grammar

Forget or leave?

We sometimes use forget when we don’t remember to bring something with us: …

Idioms

and don't you forget it

forget it

(Definition of forget from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

forget | Intermediate English

forget

verb [ I/T ]

/fərˈɡet, fɔr-/

present participle forgetting | past tense forgot us/fərˈɡɑt, fɔr-/ | past participle forgotten us/fərˈɡɑt·ən, fɔr-/ forgot

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to be unable to remember; fail to remember:

[ T ] You’d better not forget your mother’s birthday.

[ + (that) clause ] She forgot (that) she had a dental appointment.

[ + to infinitive ] Don’t forget to lock the car.

To forget (about) is to stop thinking about someone or something, or to stop thinking about doing something:

[ T ] I wish I could forget him but I can’t.

[ I ] I’m afraid we’ll have to forget about going to the beach – it’s raining.

Idiom

forget (about) it

(Definition of forget from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of forget

forget

Sometimes we forget that but he never did.

From OCRegister

So, sure, a lot of people do forget it.

From NPR

Maybe it forgot to have a higher purpose.

From TechCrunch

Don't forget he started the 2014 season on the right side before settling in at left guard.

From cleveland.com

What he wouldn't want to be is forgotten.

From Slate Magazine

Many cases, even after a year, get forgotten about.

From The Star-Ledger - NJ.com

That particular smell whenever you smell it, it's something that you never forget.

From ABC News

But, forget opacity -- let's just look at the simple stuff.

From Huffington Post

But you can forget that; those issues are not before the court today.

From Slate Magazine

I think a lot of people forget about that.

From NPR

Lest anyone forget, here's how it all started.

From Huffington Post

Let's not forget you also have a family that is grieving for a loved one who is yet to be buried.

From ABC News

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of forget?