verb

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: Verb and vèrb

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English verbe, from Old French verbe, from Latin verbum (“word, verb”), from Proto-Indo-European *werdʰo-. Doublet of verve and word.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

verb (plural verbs)

  1. (grammar) A word that indicates an action, event, or state of being.
    The word “speak” is an English verb.
    • 1530 July 18, Iohan Palſgrave, “The Introduction”, in Leſclarciſſement de la langue francoyſe […] ‎[1], London: Richard Pynſon, Iohan Haukyns, OCLC 715474564, page 32; reprinted as Lesclarcissement de la langue françoyse, Genève: Slatkine Reprints, 1972:
      In ſo moche that if any verbe be of the thyꝛde coniugation / I ſet out all his rotes and tenſes […]
  2. (obsolete) Any word; a vocable.
    • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), 6th edition, London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, OCLC 21766567:
      a Verb of the Singular
  3. (figuratively) An action as opposed to a trait or thing.
    Kindness is a verb, not an adjective. You're only kind if you do kind things.
  4. (programming) A named command that performs a specific operation on an object.
    • 1995, Adam Denning, OLE Controls Inside Out (page 321)
      You can invoke the Properties OLE verb in many ways. The easiest way is to move the mouse over the border of the control until it becomes only a four-way pointer and then right-click.
    • 2016, Ada Gavrilovska, Attaining High Performance Communications: A Vertical Approach:
      The InfiniBand verbs, which are closely modeled in the “Gen2” interface, provide the functional specification for the operations that should be allowed on an InfiniBand compliant adapter.

Usage notes[edit]

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.

Quotations[edit]

  • 2001 — Eoin 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.

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

  • See also: Thesaurus:verb

    • Translations[edit]

    Verb[edit]

    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 or was 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... .
      • 1993 January 25, Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
        I like to verb words.... I take nouns and adjectives and use them as verbs. Remember when "access" was a thing? Now it's something you DO. It got verbed. Verbing weirds language.
      • 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
    2. (used as a neutral, unspecific verb, often in linguistics and the social sciences) To perform any action that is normally expressed by a verb.
      • 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.

    Conjugation[edit]

    Conjugation of verb
    infinitive (to) verb
    present tense past tense
    1st-person singular verb verbed
    2nd-person singular verb, verbest* verbed, verbedst*
    3rd-person singular verbs, verbeth* verbed
    plural verb
    subjunctive verb
    imperative verb —
    participles verbing verbed

    Quotations[edit]

    See also[edit]

    Anagrams[edit]

    Breton[edit]

    Etymology[edit]

    From Latin verbum.

    Pronunciation[edit]

    Noun[edit]

    verb m (plural verboù)

    1. (grammar) verb

    Derived terms[edit]

    Catalan[edit]

    Etymology[edit]

    From Latin verbum.

    Pronunciation[edit]

    Noun[edit]

    verb m (plural verbs)

    1. verb

    Derived terms[edit]

    Related terms[edit]

    Further reading[edit]

    Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

    Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
    Wikipedia no

    Etymology[edit]

    From Latin verbum.

    Noun[edit]

    verb n (definite singular verbet, indefinite plural verb or verber, definite plural verba or verbene)

    1. (grammar) verb

    Derived terms[edit]

    References[edit]

    Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

    Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
    Wikipedia nn

    Etymology[edit]

    From Latin verbum.

    Noun[edit]

    verb n (definite singular verbet, indefinite plural verb, definite plural verba)

    1. (grammar) verb

    Derived terms[edit]

    References[edit]

    Romanian[edit]

    Romanian Wikipedia has an article on:
    Wikipedia ro

    Etymology[edit]

    From Latin verbum.

    Pronunciation[edit]

    Noun[edit]

    verb n (plural verbe)

    1. verb

    Declension[edit]

    Declension of verb
    singular plural
    indefinite articulation definite articulation indefinite articulation definite articulation
    nominative/accusative (un) verb verbul (niște) verbe verbele
    genitive/dative (unui) verb verbului (unor) verbe verbelor
    vocative verbule verbelor

    Swedish[edit]

    Noun[edit]

    verb n

    1. (grammar) verb

    Declension[edit]

    Declension of verb 
    Singular Plural
    Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
    Nominative verb verbet verb verben
    Genitive verbs verbets verbs verbens

    Synonyms[edit]

    Hyponyms[edit]

    Descendants[edit]

    • → Ingrian: verbi

    Related terms[edit]

    References[edit]

    Anagrams[edit]

    Veps[edit]

    Etymology[edit]

    (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

    Noun[edit]

    verb

    1. verb

    Inflection[edit]

    Inflection of verb
    nominative sing. verb
    genitive sing. verban
    partitive sing. verbad
    partitive plur. verboid
    singular plural
    nominative verb verbad
    accusative verban verbad
    genitive verban verboiden
    partitive verbad verboid
    essive-instructive verban verboin
    translative verbaks verboikš
    inessive verbas verboiš
    elative verbaspäi verboišpäi
    illative ? verboihe
    adessive verbal verboil
    ablative verbalpäi verboilpäi
    allative verbale verboile
    abessive verbata verboita
    comitative verbanke verboidenke
    prolative verbadme verboidme
    approximative I verbanno verboidenno
    approximative II verbannoks verboidennoks
    egressive verbannopäi verboidennopäi
    terminative I ? verboihesai
    terminative II verbalesai verboilesai
    terminative III verbassai —
    additive I ? verboihepäi
    additive II verbalepäi verboilepäi

    References[edit]

    • Zajceva, N. G.; Mullonen, M. I. (2007), “глагол”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary], Petrozavodsk: Periodika
    Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=verb&oldid=68572061"