forbidden fruit
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Something desirable but off-limits
Literally: fruit that is not allowed to be eaten
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
Behind stood an impressive array of walls and couloirs, though the Pico del Norte and Illampu would prove forbidden fruits, guarded as they were that year by avalanches of fresh snow.
The tastiest forbidden fruit should be concealed, ignored, left to rot on the branch — not offered to the customers on a plate.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “forbidden fruit” mean?
Something desirable but off-limits Literally: fruit that is not allowed to be eaten
Is “forbidden fruit” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.