a. [f. FORGET v. + -FUL.]
1. Apt, inclined, or liable to forget; having a bad memory. Also, that forgets: const. of.
1382. Wyclif, Jas. i. 25. Not maad a forȝetful herer, but a doer of werk.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., II. v. 165. We ben ful freel and forȝeteful.
1509. Fisher, Fun. Serm. C’tess Richmond, Wks. (1876), 291. Unkynde she wolde not be vnto no creature, ne forgetefull of ony kyndnes or seruyce done to her before, whiche is no lytel parte of veray noblenes.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., IV. iii. 255. Bru. Beare with me good Boy, I am much forgetfull.
1794. Coleridge, Death of Chatterton, 113.
| No more endure to weigh | |
| The shame and anguish of the evil day, | |
| Wisely forgetful! |
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xiv. 97. Whether it is the quality of my mind to take in the glory of the present so intensely as to make me forgetful of the glory of the past, I know not, but it appeared to me that I had never seen anything finer than the scene from the summit.
2. Heedless, neglectful. Const. of or inf.
1526–34. Tindale, Heb. xiii. 2. Be not forgetfull to lodge straungers. For therby have dyvers receaved angels into their houses vnwares.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 708.
| Th’ unwary Lover cast his Eyes behind, | |
| Forgetful of the Law, nor Master of his Mind. |
1720. Prior, Horace, I. ix. 16.
| And, with the usual Courtier’s Trick, intend | |
| To serve Myself, forgetful of my Friend. |
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 48.
| He compassed her with sweet observances | |
| And worship, never leaving her, and grew | |
| Forgetful of his promise to the king, | |
| Forgetful of the falcon and the hunt, | |
| Forgetful of the tilt and tournament, | |
| Forgetful of his glory and his name, | |
| Forgetful of his princedom and its cares. |
3. That causes to forget, inducing oblivion. Chiefly poet. (Cf. oblivious.)
1557. Tottell’s Misc. (Arb.), 271.
| Then reason runnes about, | |
| To seke forgetfull water: | |
| To quench and clene put out, | |
| The cause of all this matter. |
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 73.
| Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench | |
| Of that forgetful Lake benumme not still. |
1697. Dryden, Æneid, VI. 1016.
| Compell’d to drink the deep Lethean Flood: | |
| In large forgetful draughts to steep the Cares | |
| Of their past Labours, and their Irksom Years. |
1787. Generous Attachm., I. 157. The self same bed … once received an honoured parent … to its soft forgetful down.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., xxxv.
| And Love would answer with a sigh, | |
| ‘The sound of that forgetful shore | |
| Will change my sweetness more and more, | |
| Half-dead to know that I shall die.’ |
Hence Forgetfully adv., in a forgetful manner.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1744), VIII. xiv. 416. But since it is our duty not to violate the memory of our oppressors, but silently, thankfully, and forgetfully to accept the oppression: we will commemorate only the king’s restitution.
1711. Boyse, From C. Dryden’s Horti Arlingtoniani, Poems, 36.
| Or thro’ the Maze forgetfully they stray, | |
| Lost in the pleasing sweetly-winding Way. |
1859. Cornwallis, New World, I. 70. One of them having forgetfully left his umbrella behind him among the coals, had to return to the house, upon which he was assailed almost to assassination for his share in ‘spoiling the sheets.’
