Verb
(third-person singular simple present forworths, present participle forworthing, simple past forworthed or forword, past participle forworthed, forworthen, or forworden)
- (intransitive, rare, now chiefly dialectal) To perish; come to nought or ruin; go wrong.
- (intransitive, rare, now chiefly dialectal) To degenerate (into); become (something inferi); come to.
Origin
From Middle English forworthen, from Old English forweorþan (“to perish, pass away, vanish; deteriorate, sicken”), from Proto-Germanic *frawerþaną (“to perish, come to ruin”), equivalent to for- (“away, wrongly, badly”) + worth (“to turn into, become”).
