Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To involve oneself in a situation so as to alter or hinder an action or development.
  • intransitive verb To interfere, usually through force or threat of force, in the affairs of another nation.
  • intransitive verb Law To enter into a lawsuit as a third party to assert a claim against one or both of the existing parties.
  • intransitive verb To come, appear, or lie between two things.
  • intransitive verb To come or occur between two periods or points of time.
  • intransitive verb To occur as an extraneous or unplanned circumstance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A coming together; a meeting.
  • To come between; fall or happen between things, persons, periods, or events; be intermediate, or appear or happen intermediately.
  • To come between in act; act intermediately or mediatorially; interfere or interpose, as between persons, parties, or states.
  • In law, to interpose and become a party to a suit pending between other parties: as, stockholders may intervene in a suit against directors.
  • To come between; divide.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To come between, or to be between, persons or things; -- followed by between.
  • intransitive verb To occur, fall, or come between, points of time, or events
  • intransitive verb To interpose.
  • intransitive verb In a suit to which one has not been made a party, to put forward a defense of one's interest in the subject matter.
  • transitive verb rare To come between.
  • noun obsolete A coming between; intervention; meeting.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To come between, or to be between, persons or things; -- followed by between; as, the Mediterranean intervenes between Europe and Africa.
  • verb To occur, fall, or come between, points of time, or events; as, an instant intervened between the flash and the report; nothing intervened ( i. e., between the intention and the execution) to prevent the undertaking.
  • verb To interpose; as, to intervene to settle a quarrel; get involved, so as to alter or hinder an action
  • verb law In a suit to which one has not been made a party, to put forward a defense of one's interest in the subject matter.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb be placed or located between other things or extend between spaces and events
  • verb occur between other event or between certain points of time
  • verb get involved, so as to alter or hinder an action, or through force or threat of force

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin intervenīre : inter-, inter- + venīre, to come; see gwā- in Indo-European roots.]

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