Definition of "put forth"
put forth
verb
third-person singular simple present puts forth, present participle putting forth, simple past and past participle put forth
(transitive) To give or supply; to make or create (implies trying or striving).
Quotations
“Oh! when a gallant young man, like Mr. Frank Churchill,” said Mr. Knightley dryly, “writes to a fair lady like Miss Woodhouse, he will, of course, put forth his best.”
1815 December (indicated as 1816), [Jane Austen], chapter 16, in Emma: […], volumes (please specify |volume=I, II or III), London: […] [Charles Roworth and James Moyes] for John Murray
(transitive) To extend forward (a body part or something held).
Quotations
With his broad Sabre next, a Chief in Years, / The hoary Majesty of Spades appears; / Puts forth one manly Leg, to sight reveal’d; / The rest his many-colour’d Robe conceal’d.
1712 May, [Alexander Pope], “The Rape of the Locke. An Heroi-comical Poem.”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], canto 3, page 22
(transitive) To advance, offer, propose (often verbally).
Quotations
They put forth questions of Astrologie, / Which Faustus answerd with such learned skill, / As they admirde and wondred at his wit.
1589–1592 (date written), Ch[ristopher] Marl[owe], The Tragicall History of D. Faustus. […], London: […] V[alentine] S[immes] for Thomas Bushell, published 1604; republished as Hermann Breymann, editor, Doctor Faustus (Englische Sprach- und Literaturdenkmale des 16., 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts; 5; Marlowes Werke: Historisch-kritische Ausgabe […]; II), Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg: Verlag von Gebr[üder] Henninger, 1889, scene VII, page 49, lines 930–932
So far as one can ascertain from the conflicting accounts that have been put forth, the majority of them remained busied with preparations […]
1895–1897, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter 1, in The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, published 1898, book I (The Coming of the Martians), page 15
In its present form, the social order depends for its continued existence on the acceptance, without too many embarrassing questions, of the propaganda put forth by those in authority and the propaganda hallowed by the local traditions.
1958, Aldous Huxley, Brave New World Revisited, New York: Harper & Bros., c. 1962, Chapter 11
(transitive) To emit, send out, give off (light, odour, etc.).
Quotations
[…] now the Moon beginning to put forth her Silver Light, as the Poets call it (tho’ she looked at that Time more like a Piece of Copper) Jones called for his Reckoning […]
1749, Henry Fielding, chapter 6, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], book 12, page 367
(transitive, intransitive) To grow, shoot, bud, or germinate.
Quotations
[…] her hedges even-pleach’d, / Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair, / Put forth disorder’d twigs;
1599, William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene ii]
[…] [t]ake from vnder Walls, or the like, where Nettles put forth in abundance, the Earth which you shall there finde […]
1631, Francis [Bacon], “VI. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], page 137
(transitive, intransitive) (of a ship) To leave (a port or haven).
Quotations
[…] order for sea is given; / They have put forth the haven [—] / Where their appointment we may best discover, / And look on their endeavour.
c. 1606–1607, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene x]
And where but from Nantucket, too, did that first adventurous little sloop put forth, partly laden with imported cobblestones—so goes the story—to throw at the whales, in order to discover when they were nigh enough to risk a harpoon from the bowsprit?
1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 2, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley