verb

Alternative forms

• vb., v. (abbreviation)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /vɝb/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vɜːb/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)b

Noun

verb (plural verbs)

1. (grammar) A word that indicates an action, event, or state.

   The word “speak” is an English verb.

2. (obsolete) Any word; a vocable.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of South to this entry?)

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.

Verb

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 not, or had not been 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... .

   • 1997, David. F. Griffiths, Desmond J. Higham, learning L^AT_EX, 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.

See also

• copula

Etymology

From Latin verbum.

Noun

verb m (plural verbs)

1. verb

Etymology

From Latin verbum.

Noun

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

1. (grammar) verb

References

• “verb” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Etymology

From Latin verbum.

Noun

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

1. (grammar) verb

References

• “verb” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Etymology

From Latin verbum.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [verb]

Noun

verb n (plural verbe)

1. verb

Noun

verb n

1. (grammar) verb

References

• verb in Svenska Akademiens Ordlista över svenska språket (13th ed., online)

Noun

verb

1. verb

References

• Zajceva, N. G.; Mullonen, M. I. (2007), “глагол”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary], Petrozavodsk: Periodika