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Wiktionary

verb

See also: Verb and vèrb

English

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Noun

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verb (plural verbs)

  2. (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, 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 […]
  3. (obsolete) Any word; a vocable.
    • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
      a Verb of the Singular
  4. (figurative) 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.
  5. (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

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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

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  • 2001, Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, page 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

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Verb

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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, Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes:
      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, page 8:
      Nouns should never be verbed.
    • 2005 October 5, Jeffrey Mattison, “Letters”, in The Christian Science Monitor, page 8:
      In English, verbing nouns is okay
  2. (linguistics, social sciences) Used as a placeholder for any 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

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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 verbed
imperative verb —
participles verbing verbed

†Archaic or obsolete.

Quotations

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See also

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Anagrams

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Breton

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Etymology

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From Latin verbum.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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verb m (plural verboù)

  1. (grammar) verb

Derived terms

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Catalan

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Latin verbum.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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verb m (plural verbs)

  1. verb

Derived terms

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Further reading

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Norwegian Bokmål

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Norwegian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia no

Etymology

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From Latin verbum.

Noun

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

  1. (grammar) verb

Derived terms

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References

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Norwegian Nynorsk

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Norwegian Nynorsk Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia nn

Etymology

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From Latin verbum.

Noun

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

  1. (grammar) verb

Derived terms

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References

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Romanian

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Romanian Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia ro

Etymology

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From Latin verbum.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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verb n (plural verbe)

  1. verb

Declension

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singular plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative-accusative verb verbul verbe verbele
genitive-dative verb verbului verbe verbelor
vocative verbule verbelor

Swedish

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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verb n

  1. (grammar) verb

Declension

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Declension of verb
nominative genitive
singular indefinite verb verbs
definite verbet verbets
plural indefinite verb verbs
definite verben verbens

Synonyms

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Hyponyms

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Descendants

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  • → Finnish: verbi
  • → Ingrian: verbi

References

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Anagrams

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Veps

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Etymology

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

Noun

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verb

  1. verb

Inflection

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Inflection of verb (inflection type 5/sana)
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 verbaha 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 verbahasai verboihesai
terminative II verbalesai verboilesai
terminative III verbassai —
additive I verbahapäi verboihepäi
additive II verbalepäi verboilepäi

References

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  • Zajceva, N. G., Mullonen, M. I. (2007) “глагол”, in Uz’ venä-vepsläine vajehnik / Novyj russko-vepsskij slovarʹ [New Russian–Veps Dictionary]‎[2], Petrozavodsk: Periodika
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