verb

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[edit] English

Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia

[edit] Etymology

From Old French verbe, from Latin verbum (word), from Proto-Indo-European *wer-.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

Singular
verb

Plural
verbs

verb (plural verbs)

  1. (grammar) A word that indicates an action, an event, or a state.
    The word “speak” is an English verb.

[edit] Usage notes

Verbs compose a fundamental category of words in most languages. In an English clause, a verb forms the head of the predicate of the clause. In many languages, verbs uniquely conjugate for tense and aspect.

[edit] Quotations

  • 2001Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, p 221
    Then you could say that the doorway exploded. But the particular verb doesn't do the action justice. Rather, it shattered into infinitesimal pieces.

[edit] Hyponyms

[edit] Derived terms

[edit] Translations

[edit] Verb

Infinitive
to verb

Third person singular
verbs

Simple past
verbed

Past participle
verbed

Present participle
verbing

to verb (third-person singular simple present verbs, present participle verbing, simple past and past participle verbed)

  1. (transitive, nonstandard, colloquial) To use any word that is not a verb (especially a noun) as if it were a verb.
    • a. 1981 Feb 22, unknown Guardian editor as quoted by William Safire, On Language, in New York Times, pSM3
      Haig, in congressional hearings before his confirmatory, paradoxed his auditioners by abnormalling his responds so that verbs were nouned, nouns verbed and adjectives adverbised. He techniqued a new way to vocabulary his thoughts so as to informationally uncertain anybody listening about what he had actually implicationed... .
    • 1997, David. F. Griffiths, Desmond J. Higham, learning LATEX, p8
      Nouns should never be verbed.
    • 2005 Oct 5, Jeffrey Mattison, Letters, in The Christian Science Monitor, p8
      In English, verbing nouns is okay
  1. (used as a neutral, unspecific verb, often in linguistics and the social sciences) To perform any action that is normally expressed by a verb; for example, to kiss, to be, to think, to write, to disappear, to feel, to see, etc.
    • 1946: Rand Corporation, The Rand Paper Series
      For example, one-part versions of the proposition "The doctor pursued the lawyer" were "The doctor verbed the object," ...
    • 1964: Journal of Mathematical Psychology
      Each sentence had the same basic structure: The subject transitive verbed the object who intransitive verbed in the location.
    • 1998: Marilyn A. Walker, Aravind Krishna Joshi, Centering Theory in Discourse
      The sentence frame was Dan verbed Ben approaching the store. This sentence frame was followed in all cases by He went inside.

[edit] Quotations

[edit] See also


[edit] Romanian

Romanian Wikipedia has an article on:

Wikipedia ro

[edit] Etymology

From Latin verbum.

[edit] Pronunciation

[edit] Noun

verb n. (plural verbe)

  1. verb

[edit] Declension

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