ppl. a. arch. [mod.Eng. (strong) pa. pple. of FORWEAR v.] Worn out, exhausted, decayed, grown old, the worse for wear.
1508. Fisher, 7 Penit. Ps. li. Wks. (1876), 117. Many craftes men had leuer take vpon them to make a thynge all newe than to botche or mende an olde forworen thynge.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., A iij b. They, who haue (for your sake, and vertues cause) requested me, (an old forworne Mathematicien) to take pen in hand.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. vi. 35.
A silly man, in simple weedes forworne, | |
And soild with dust of the long dried way. |
1625. Gonsalviuss Sp. Inquis., 64. He obtained both a discharge from his seruice, and a fat Bishopricke besides in recompence of his trauailes, and partly in consideration that he was an old forworne soldiour.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 545. Either tame yong horses, cure lame iades, or refresh old, wearied, and for-worne Hackneyes.
1849. J. A. Carlyle, trans. Dantes Inferno, 32. Those spirits who were foreworn and naked, changed colour and chattered with their teeth.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., III. IV. 410.
Slowly he went, for afternoon it was, | |
And with the long way was he much foreworn. |