verb

• vb., v. (abbreviation)

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.

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

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜː(ɹ)b

verb (plural verbs)

1. (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 […] ‎, 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 […]

2. (obsolete) Any word; a vocable.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC:

     a Verb of the Singular

3. (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.

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.

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.

• 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.

• See: Thesaurus:verb

• See also: Thesaurus: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 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 LAT_EX, 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. (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.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:verb.

• copula

• brev

From Latin verbum.

• IPA^(key): /ˈvɛrp/

verb m (plural verboù)

1. (grammar) verb

• adverb
• verb-skoazell

Borrowed from Latin verbum.

• IPA^(key): (Central) [ˈbɛrp]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [ˈvɛrp]
• IPA^(key): (Valencian) [ˈvɛɾp]

verb m (plural verbs)

1. verb

• verb modal

• verba
• verbal

• “verb” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

From Latin verbum.

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

1. (grammar) verb

• verbbøying

• “verb” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Latin verbum.

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

1. (grammar) verb

• verbbøying

• “verb” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Latin verbum.

• IPA^(key): [verb]

verb n (plural verbe)

1. verb

• Audio

  (file)

verb n

1. (grammar) verb

• kraftord

• hjälpverb

• → Finnish: verbi
• → Ingrian: verbi

• verb in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

• brev

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

verb

1. verb

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