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

[Middle English verbe, from Old French, from Latin verbum, word, verb (translation of Greek rhēma, word, verb); see wer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French verbe, from Latin verbum ("word"), from Proto-Indo-European *werdʰo-. Etymological twin of word.

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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

    Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions 2009

  • Use the correct form of the verb (verb + ing or to +verb) to fill in the blanks.? en Español

    Yahoo! Answers: Latest Questions 2009

  • 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

Comments

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  • Verbs has to agree with their subjects.

    January 25, 2007

  • "'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

  • That's a fabulous language quote.

    March 4, 2008

  • It is indeed.

    I love that verb is a noun.

    March 4, 2008

  • If only noun were a verb....

    March 4, 2008

  • What are you talking about? I go around nouning things all the time.

    March 4, 2008

  • My tongue was apparently not as firmly in cheek as I thought it was. ;-)

    March 4, 2008

  • Your tongue wasn't cheeked, you mean?

    March 5, 2008

  • Exactly right. Well, it was, but it escaped somehow.

    March 5, 2008

  • 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

  • How would we get anything done without verbs?

    December 26, 2008

  • Corio - Possibly with symbols.

    Telegram from Mark Twain , ignorant of new book sales, to publisher: ?

    Publisher to Mark Twain: !

    December 26, 2008

  • Make verb and subject agree to disagree is what makes a great writer. Or a crappy one.

    April 2, 2012

  • 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

  • Today while shopping I spotted verb shampoo... so there you go... they've verbed a physical noun.

    February 18, 2024

  • I wouldn't say it's particularly unusual. Consider grease, chair, photograph, etc. I've certainly heard shampoo as a verb.

    February 19, 2024

  • 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