verderben

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See also: Verderben

German

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Etymology

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From a merger of Middle High German verderben (to perish, die) (strong verb) and verderben (bring ruin to, kill, damage) (weak verb). The former is from Old High German *farderban, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fraderban, which is in turn from Proto-Germanic *derbaną (to perish).

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /fɛɐ̯ˈdɛʁbən/
  • Hyphenation: ver‧der‧ben
  • Homophone: Verderben
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

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verderben (class 3 strong, third-person singular present verdirbt, past tense verdarb, past participle verdorben, past subjunctive verdürbe, auxiliary haben or sein)

  1. (transitive) to deprive (someone) of (something); to rob (someone) of (some feeling) [auxiliary haben]
  2. (transitive) to ruin; to render (something) useless; to corrupt; to spoil [auxiliary haben]
  3. (intransitive, usually of food) to spoil; to rot; to perish [auxiliary sein]
  4. (intransitive) to be offensive; to live sinfully [auxiliary sein]

Usage notes

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In most contexts, the verb has strong conjugation. However, it has weak conjugation when referring to a written document: Der Text ist verderbt – The text is corrupted. (Chiefly, only the past participle is used in this sense.) Also, in archaic German, verderbt could be used in other senses as well.

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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Further reading

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  • verderben” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • verderben” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • verderben” in Duden online
  • verderben” in OpenThesaurus.de