forbidding

«forbidding» in Mova's school dictionary: looking unfriendly, frightening or dangerous: a… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (forbidding; more forbidding); verb form (forbid, forbids, forbade, forbidden, forbidding)

meaning for a pupil

1) Forbidding means looking unfriendly, frightening or dangerous: a forbidding castle. tree →

2) Forbidding is the -ing form of forbid: telling someone they must not do something. tree →

sense in the lessons

In stories to set a scary mood (forbidding mountains, a forbidding look), in rules and signs (a sign forbidding swimming), in Bible stories (God forbidding the fruit).

examples

• The castle looked dark and forbidding. tree →
• The head teacher gave us a forbidding stare. tree →
• There is a sign forbidding dogs on the beach. tree →
• The forbidding cliffs rose above the sea. tree →
• Mum is forbidding sweets before dinner. tree →
• The forest seemed forbidding at night. tree →

note

Two different uses: adjective (unfriendly-looking) and verb form (not allowing). Forms of forbid: forbid, forbade (say «for-BAD»), forbidden.

In the corpora

• Daniel kept praying to God three times a day despite a law forbidding it, was thrown to the lions and was kept safe.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «forbidding» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.