Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The part of speech that expresses existence, action, or occurrence in most languages.
- noun Any of the words belonging to this part of speech, as be, run, or conceive.
- noun A phrase or other construction used as a verb.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun If. A word; a vocable.
- noun In grammar, a word that asserts or declares; that part of speech of which the office is predication, and which, either alone or with various modifiers or adjuncts, combines with a subject to make a sentence.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete A word; a vocable.
- noun (Gram.) A word which affirms or predicates something of some person or thing; a part of speech expressing being, action, or the suffering of action.
- noun etc. See
Active ,Auxiliary ,Neuter , etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun grammar A
word that indicates an action, event, or state. - verb transitive, nonstandard, colloquial To use any word that is not a verb (especially a noun) as if it were a verb.
- verb To perform any action that is normally expressed by a verb.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the word class that serves as the predicate of a sentence
- noun a content word that denotes an action, occurrence, or state of existence
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word verb.
Examples
-
_The relative is the nominative case to the verb, when no nominative comes between it and the verb_.
English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Samuel Kirkham
-
But the preposition is more frequently placed after the verb, and separately from it, like an adverb; in which situation it does not less affect the sense of the verb, and give it a new meaning; and in all instances, whether the preposition is placed either before or after the verb, if it gives a new meaning to the verb, it may be considered as _a part of the verb_.
English Grammar in Familiar Lectures Samuel Kirkham
-
_ A verb whose action passes over to the object directly, as in the sentence above, is called a «transitive verb».
Latin for Beginners Benjamin Leonard D'Ooge 1900
-
It must, one would think, have been the badness of the ` ` copy '' that induced the compositors to turn ` ` the nature and theory of the Greek verb '' into _the native theology of the Greek verb_; ` ` the conser < p 124 > vation of energy '' into the _conversation of energy_; and the ` ` Forest Conservancy
Literary Blunders Henry Benjamin Wheatley 1877
-
Use the correct form of the verb (verb + ing or to +verb) to fill in the blanks.? en Español
-
Use the correct form of the verb (verb + ing or to +verb) to fill in the blanks.? en Español
-
For I do not call not-man a noun, but an in - definite noun; since an indefinite noun in a certain respect signifies one thing®; just as is not zcdl, is not a verb, but an indefinite verb* But
Works Aristotle, Thomas Taylor 1812
-
The verb names to filter on (optional) param ([Parameter (ValueFromPipeline = $true, Position = 0)] [string []] $verb = "*") begin {
MSDN Blogs 2009
-
The verb names to filter on (optional) param ([Parameter (ValueFromPipeline = $true, Position = 0)] [string []] $verb = "*") begin {
MSDN Blogs 2009
-
The verb comes from the Latin word rubrica, which means 'red chalk or ochre'.
between the rock and the cold, cold sea -- Day hawkwing_lb 2005
uselessness commented on the word verb
Verbs has to agree with their subjects.
January 25, 2007
chained_bear commented on the word verb
"'We studied the Malay language together, when he was well enough, and I remember his delight at the verb: no person, no number, no mood, no tense.'
"'That is the kind of verb for me,' said Jack."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 104
March 3, 2008
seanahan commented on the word verb
That's a fabulous language quote.
March 4, 2008
john commented on the word verb
It is indeed.
I love that verb is a noun.
March 4, 2008
reesetee commented on the word verb
If only noun were a verb....
March 4, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word verb
What are you talking about? I go around nouning things all the time.
March 4, 2008
reesetee commented on the word verb
My tongue was apparently not as firmly in cheek as I thought it was. ;-)
March 4, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word verb
Your tongue wasn't cheeked, you mean?
March 5, 2008
reesetee commented on the word verb
Exactly right. Well, it was, but it escaped somehow.
March 5, 2008
seanahan commented on the word verb
Verb is a noun, and noun is a noun. I enjoy words which describe themselves, and the opposite, words which don't describe themselves. Monosyllabic and polysyllabic have to be the champion examples for this phenomenon.
March 5, 2008
corylusavellana commented on the word verb
How would we get anything done without verbs?
December 26, 2008
BrainyBabe commented on the word verb
Corio - Possibly with symbols.
Telegram from Mark Twain , ignorant of new book sales, to publisher: ?
Publisher to Mark Twain: !
December 26, 2008
YeOldeWorde commented on the word verb
Make verb and subject agree to disagree is what makes a great writer. Or a crappy one.
April 2, 2012
fbharjo commented on the word verb
How to subverb! That is the question! Or is that subver(b)sive?
Or is it the use of ad(d)verbs? (that is subversive?)
April 3, 2012
alexz commented on the word verb
Today while shopping I spotted verb shampoo... so there you go... they've verbed a physical noun.
February 18, 2024
bilby commented on the word verb
I wouldn't say it's particularly unusual. Consider grease, chair, photograph, etc. I've certainly heard shampoo as a verb.
February 19, 2024
ry commented on the word verb
pretty sure that shampoo is well-established as a verb. shampooed, etc. And verbing a physical object is definitely nothing new. One of my favorites is Velcroing.
February 28, 2024