forbid

"God forbid I raise my standards," she laughs.

From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026

That’s not your total return because it doesn’t include appreciation — or, heaven forbid, depreciation — of your home.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026

Laws forbid the IRS from targeting individuals and organizations for ideological reasons, and federal officials are not allowed to direct IRS investigations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

“Because God forbid they start watching ‘The View’ or something.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

“Good points in him, good points in him,” said Cousin Raymond; “Heaven forbid I should deny good points in him; but he never had, and he never will have, any sense of the proprieties.”

From "Great Expectations" by Charles Dickens

It is likely to have a limited impact in the month ahead because the law forbids states from purging their voter rolls in the 90 days before an election.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2026

It forbids the government from "abridging" the freedom of the press - language that courts have traditionally interpreted as preventing the government from discriminating against the media based on the content of their coverage.

From BBC ● Sep. 22, 2026

The First Amendment to the US Constitution forbids Congress from "abridging" the freedom of the press.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

“When a state offers a method for casting a ballot, the Constitution forbids restricting access to that voting method based on any prohibited ground, including age,” Judge Roger Gregory writes for a unanimous panel.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026

The Court had repeatedly made clear, though, that the Constitution does not require that racial minorities and women actually serve on juries—it only forbids excluding jurors on the basis of race or gender.

From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

The Meyer decision, for example, overturned a Nebraska law which forbad teaching non-English languages in public and private schools.

From Slate ● Nov. 1, 2022

My mother forbad me ever to say a word about it.

From Four Phases of Love by Paul Heyse

In the seventeenth they forbad her all worldly songs; as to religious songs, she abstains from them much more easily.

From Priests, Women, and Families by Jules Michelet

In St. Augustin's time, as we have seen, they positively forbad the Pope's interference with their internal government, and only submitted to it after they had been enfeebled by the irruption of the Vandals.

From The Church of England cleared from the charge of Schism Upon Testimonies of Councils and Fathers of the first six centuries by T. W. (Thomas William) Allies

When, however, the imperial pleasure was finally taken, Taou Kwang forbad any further reference to the proposal, saying that he could not “change face.”

From A Vindication of England's Policy with Regard to the Opium Trade by Charles Reginald Haines

After the judge forbade them from using certain PowerPoint slides, Halem’s former attorneys decided against presenting an opening statement to jurors, scuttling any possibility of a favorable outcome, Weimortz said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

The reason for the separation between the businesses, Corley added, had to do with a defunct local law that forbade the two establishments existing under one umbrella.

From Slate ● Jun. 25, 2026

That’s because the rule never forbade criticism of the SEC, but only a defendant’s attempt to deny the allegations or facts in a settlement that it “neither admitted nor denied.”

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026

Mr. Ahamed is sure it would have helped, but the spirit of the times resisted it and the law of the land forbade it.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

A fortnight passed before Littlefinger was strong enough to leave Riverrun, but her lord father forbade her to visit him in the tower where he lay abed.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

Conversations with others is one thing, and watching movies without headphones is forbidden, but dictating out loud when she could type is an irritating loophole.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 18, 2026

As Li’s novel makes clear, to be young and ambitious in 18th century Europe meant having the fortitude to dream forbidden dreams, against all odds.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026

Gender segregation is standard practice for many Orthodox Jews but is forbidden in public places by the government of socially liberal Tel Aviv.

From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026

Set during the Troubles in Northern Ireland it was a story of cross-community forbidden love between a young Catholic teacher and a married Protestant barrister.

From BBC ● Sep. 24, 2026

Even as taxonomy—the classification of plant and animal species—flourished, inquiries into the origin of living beings were relegated to the forbidden sidelines.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

We were travelling with Yemen's pro-government forces, catching glimpses of the Arabian Sea, and forbidding mountain peaks in the distance.

From BBC ● Oct. 12, 2026

Daniels isn’t pleased, informing LSU through his attorney that he “feels profoundly disrespected” and forbidding the school to use his name, image and likeness.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026

If your niece’s mother lives there rent-free, the trustee should be comfortable that doing so benefits your niece and there should be no rules forbidding it.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 7, 2026

The cultural chasm between Europeans and Africans presented obstacles to conversion, and a long legacy of church practice forbidding the enslavement of fellow Christians provided grounds to leave slaves in unbelief.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

The road through Welch, Dad told us, led only farther up into the wet, forbidding mountains and on to other dying coal towns.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls