put forth

Verb

1. To give or supply; to make or create (implies trying or striving).
   • to put forth an effort
   • Now, Marcus, now, thy Virtue’s on the Proof: / Put forth thy utmost Strength, work ev’ry Nerve, / And call up all thy Father in thy Soul: - 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […]...
   • “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...
2. To extend forward (a body part or something held).
   • Put forth thy hand, reach at the glorious gold. - 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio),...
   • […] he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand, and dipped it in an honeycomb […] - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Samuel 14:27:
   • Put forth, put forth that warme balme-breathing thigh, Which when next time you in these sheets wil smother There it must meet another, Which never was, but must be, oft, more nigh; - 1613, John Donne, “Epithalamion...
3. To advance, offer, propose (often verbally).
   • They put forth queſtions of Aſtrologie, / VVhich 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....
   • Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC,...
   • 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,...
4. To send (someone) out, remove (someone) from a place.
   • […] they begot no children vntill they were put forth of Paradise […] - 1610, John Healey, transl., St. Augustine, Of the Citie of God, London: George Eld, Book 14, Chapter 21, p. 524:
   • Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space; - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King...
5. To emit, send out, give off (light, odour, etc.).
   • For inward light alas / Puts forth no visual beam. - 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […].”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John...
   • […] 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...
   • And, as before, it shone without dismay; Albeit putting forth a fainter light. - 1807, William Wordsworth, Untitled poem in Poems, in Two Volumes, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees & Orme, Volume 1, p. 66, Upon a leaf the...
6. To grow, shoot, bud, or germinate.
   • […] her hedges even-pleach’d, / Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair, / Put forth disorder’d twigs; - 1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies,...
   • […] [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...
   • Soon the beech trees had put forth their delicate, transparent leaves. - 1950, C. S. Lewis, chapter 11, in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, New York: Macmillan:
7. To leave (a port or haven).
   • […] 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 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of...
   • 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...