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Are "forging ahead" and "forging a check" from the same forge?
There are many things you can do with the word forge in English. You can forge ahead (which, confusingly enough, can mean either "move slowly and steadily" or "move with a sudden increase of speed"), you can forge a check or a painting (make something fake), or you can forge a sword (make something real). The senses that relate to creating something (either real or fake) come from the same Latin word that gives us fabric, which is fabricare ("to fashion, construct"). We are not certain where the “movement” senses of forge come from, except insofar as we know that they are from a different origin than the “creation” senses of the word.
Examples of forge in a Sentence
Caity Weaver, The Atlantic, 8 Oct. 2025
Here, grizzlies don’t equate people with food—as opposed to populated areas where alluring smells forge a connection—and have learned to tolerate humans, thanks to decades of naturalists adopting nonthreatening practices.
—Susan Portnoy, AFAR Media, 3 Oct. 2025
Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, 24 Oct. 2025
The avant-garde group sought to forge a new visual language of — and for — India.
—Oscar Holland, CNN Money, 24 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for forge
Cite this Entry
“Forge.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/forge. Accessed 31 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
forge
1 of 3 noun
forge
2 of 3 verbforge
3 of 3 verbNoun
Middle English forge "workshop where metal is heated and shaped," from early French forge (same meaning), from Latin fabrica "workshop for making things of metal"
Verb
origin unknown
Medical Definition
forge
intransitive verb
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