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.

  • 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.
  • 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 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.

  • 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.
  • 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.

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

  • 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.
  • 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.

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

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").

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.

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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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