Obs. [ad. Fr. † forsaire, -çaire, now superseded by forçat.] A galley-slave.
1546. St. Papers Hen. VIII., XI. 284. As toching the forsares, He could not of his honour rendre them, having before gyven them libertye.
a. 1572. Knox, Hist. Ref., I. (1586), 182. The Masse was said in the Gallies, or else hard by upon the shore, in presence of the Forsaris.
1721. Strype, Eccl. Mem., II. I. xviii. 149. A proclamation … that … every such author or maker of false tales or news, to be committed into the galleys, there to row in chains, as a slave or forsary, during the King’s pleasure.
