Use Terraform removed blocks to drop resources from state without destroying the underlying infrastructure

Steps

1. Confirm you are on Terraform >= 1.7, since the removed block was introduced in that release and isn't available earlier.
2. Delete (or comment out) the resource block for the object you no longer want Terraform to manage.
3. Add a removed block referencing that resource's former address, with a required nested lifecycle block setting destroy = false so Terraform drops it from state without calling destroy against the real infrastructure: removed { from = aws_instance.example, lifecycle { destroy = false } }
4. Run terraform plan and verify the plan describes the resource as being forgotten/removed from state rather than destroyed, then run terraform apply.
5. After applying, you can delete the removed block - it has no further effect once state no longer contains the resource, though some teams leave it briefly so the change is visible in code review history.