Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To advance gradually but steadily.
  • intransitive verb To advance with an abrupt increase of speed.
  • noun A furnace or hearth where metals are heated or wrought; a smithy.
  • noun A workshop where pig iron is transformed into wrought iron.
  • intransitive verb To form (metal, for example) by heating in a forge and beating or hammering into shape.
  • intransitive verb To form (metal) by a mechanical or hydraulic press.
  • intransitive verb To give form or shape to, especially by means of careful effort.
  • intransitive verb To fashion or reproduce for fraudulent purposes; counterfeit.
  • intransitive verb To work at a forge or smithy.
  • intransitive verb To make a forgery or counterfeit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In farriery, to strike the heel of the front shoe with the toe of the hind shoe, producing a clicking sound.
  • noun In general, a place where anything is made, shaped, or devised; a workshop.
  • noun Specifically An open fireplace or furnace, fitted with a bellows or some other appliance for obtaining a blast to urge the fire, and serving to heat metal in order that it may be hammered into form.
  • noun A smithy or works where forging is done.
  • noun Any large iron-working shop.
  • noun The act of beating or working iron or steel; the manufacture of objects in metal.
  • noun A sort of hearth or furnace in which malleable iron is made directly from the ore, by the so-called “direct process.”
  • To form by heating in a forge and hammering; beat into some particular shape, as a mass of metal.
  • To form or shape out in any way; make by any means; invent.
  • To fabricate by false imitation; specifically, in law, to make a false instrument (including every alteration of or addition to a true instrument) in similitude of an instrument by which one person could be obligated to another, with criminal intent, for the purpose of fraud and deceit: as, to forge coin; to forge a writing.
  • Synonyms To hammer out.
  • To fabricate, frame, manufacture, coin.
  • To commit forgery.
  • To move ahead slowly, with difficulty, or by mere momentum: said properly of a vessel, but also of other things: commonly with ahead. See ahead.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To form by heating and hammering; to beat into any particular shape, as a metal.
  • transitive verb To form or shape out in any way; to produce; to frame; to invent.
  • transitive verb obsolete To coin.
  • transitive verb To make falsely; to produce, as that which is untrue or not genuine; to fabricate; to counterfeit, as, a signature, or a signed document.
  • transitive verb (Naut.) To impel forward slowly.
  • noun A place or establishment where iron or other metals are wrought by heating and hammering; especially, a furnace, or a shop with its furnace, etc., where iron is heated and wrought; a smithy.
  • noun The works where wrought iron is produced directly from the ore, or where iron is rendered malleable by puddling and shingling; a shingling mill.
  • noun obsolete The act of beating or working iron or steel; the manufacture of metallic bodies.
  • noun a forge for the direct production of wrought iron, differing from the old Catalan forge mainly in using finely crushed ore and working continuously.
  • noun (Metal.) See under Catalan.
  • noun the dross or slag form a forge or bloomary.
  • noun the train of rolls by which a bloom is converted into puddle bars.
  • noun (Mil.) a wagon fitted up for transporting a blackmith's forge and tools.
  • noun a light and compact blacksmith's forge, with bellows, etc., that may be moved from place to place.
  • intransitive verb To commit forgery.
  • intransitive verb (Naut.) To move heavily and slowly, as a ship after the sails are furled; to work one's way, as one ship in outsailing another; -- used especially in the phrase to forge ahead.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb metallurgy To shape a metal by heating and hammering.
  • verb To form or create with concerted effort.
  • verb To create a forgery of; to make a counterfeit item of; to copy or imitate unlawfully.
  • verb To move forward heavily and slowly (originally as a ship); to advance gradually but steadily; to proceed towards a goal in the face of resistance or difficulty.
  • verb To advance, move or act with an abrupt increase in speed or energy.
  • noun Furnace or hearth where metals are heated prior to hammering them into shape.
  • noun Workshop in which metals are shaped by heating and hammering them.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb move ahead steadily

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Probably from forge.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *faurga, from Latin fabrica, from faber, worker.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Make way, move ahead, most likely an alteration of force, but perhaps from forge (n.), via notion of steady hammering at something. Originally nautical, in referrence to vessels.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French forge, early Old French faverge, from Latin fabrica ("workshop"), from faber ("workman in hard materials, smith") (genitive fabri). The verb is from Anglo-Norman forger ("to falsify"), from Old French forgier, from Latin fabrico ("to frame, construct, build").

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Examples

  • I am now encountering what my dead mother called the forge fire of life, and I will not shun it like a coward.

    Complete Project Gutenberg Georg Ebers Works Georg Ebers 1867

  • I am now encountering what my dead mother called the forge fire of life, and I will not shun it like a coward.

    In the Fire of the Forge — Complete Georg Ebers 1867

  • I am now encountering what my dead mother called the forge fire of life, and I will not shun it like a coward.

    In the Fire of the Forge — Volume 06 Georg Ebers 1867

  • It's more than just a "forge" - it includes infrastructure for social networking within and between communities as well, and the development team is continuing to enhance these.

    Planet Sun 2008

  • He writes, "This is a city that fabricates, forgets, and forges its past-in both senses of 'forge'-through misrepresentation and politically motivated fictions".

    PopMatters 2008

  • I picture a time when a person with sheep has profound power, shearing them and spinning their fleeces, and a person who knows how to work a forge is the reason why transportation is possible, horses needing shoes and meaning business -- not just decoration or a vehicle of recreation.

    Laura Munson: No Black Friday Laura Munson 2011

  • I picture a time when a person with sheep has profound power, shearing them and spinning their fleeces, and a person who knows how to work a forge is the reason why transportation is possible, horses needing shoes and meaning business -- not just decoration or a vehicle of recreation.

    Laura Munson: No Black Friday Laura Munson 2011

  • I picture a time when a person with sheep has profound power, shearing them and spinning their fleeces, and a person who knows how to work a forge is the reason why transportation is possible, horses needing shoes and meaning business -- not just decoration or a vehicle of recreation.

    Laura Munson: No Black Friday Laura Munson 2011

  • I picture a time when a person with sheep has profound power, shearing them and spinning their fleeces, and a person who knows how to work a forge is the reason why transportation is possible, horses needing shoes and meaning business -- not just decoration or a vehicle of recreation.

    Laura Munson: No Black Friday Laura Munson 2011

  • I picture a time when a person with sheep has profound power, shearing them and spinning their fleeces, and a person who knows how to work a forge is the reason why transportation is possible, horses needing shoes and meaning business -- not just decoration or a vehicle of recreation.

    Laura Munson: No Black Friday Laura Munson 2011

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