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Glossary of Grammar Terms
beginning with letter V
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v. Tweet Definition of v. Like Definition of v. on Facebook
abbreviation 
  1. versus
     
verb Tweet Definition of verb Like Definition of verb on Facebook
noun 
  1. (grammar) A category of words that indicate an action, event or a state; in a clause, a verb forms the head of the predicate. In most languages verbs uniquely inflect for tense.
verb 
  1. (context, transitive, nonstandard, colloquial) To use any word that is 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... .
    • 1985 Oct 13, William Safire, Invasion of the Verb Makers, in San Francisco Chronicle, p19
    • : Others, come to think of it, would also choose , with no suffix at all: "Don't nouns" is an obvious fumblerule.
    • 1996, Peter Brodie, Never Say Never: Teaching Grammar and Usage, in The English Journal 85(7), p77
    • : You mustn't nouns, they remind me piously—as I think of Shakespeare's animal verbs (to shark, to spaniel) and his bodypart verbs (to nose, to fat) and of all the great verbs they have spawned (to beaver, weasel, ferret, buffalo; to stomach, belly, scalp, kneecap).
    • 1997, David. F. Griffiths, Desmond J. Higham, learning LATEX, p8
    • : Nouns should never be verbed.
    • 2005 Oct 5, Jeffrey Mattison, Letters, in The Christian Science Monitor, p8
    • : In English, verbing nouns is okay
    • 2007 Apr 20, Dale Roberts, Rooting out bad language with a unicorn, in The Christian Science Monitor, p20
    • : I nominate for banishment the verbed nouns "dialogue" and "language," as in, "Let's dialogue on this project and then do some languaging about our proposal."
    • 2007 March: Erin McKean?, "Redefining the dictionary", Technology Entertainment Design
    • : Any time you touch a word"you use it in a new context, you give it a new connotation, you it"you make the mobile move.
      1. (context, used as a neutral, inspecific verb, often in, _, linguistics, _, and the social sciences) To perform any action that is normally expressed by a verb; for example, to kiss, to be, to think, to write, to disappear, to feel, to see, etc.
    • 1964: Journal of Mathematical Psychology
    • : Each sentence had the same basic structure: The subject transitive verbed the object who intransitive verbed in the location.
    • 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," ...
    • 1998: James E. Tomberlin, Language, Mind and Ontology
    • : One case is where I, the reporter, want to report Madonna as verbing (I keep the verb neutral on purpose) Banderas.
    • 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.
     
verbal Tweet Definition of verbal Like Definition of verbal on Facebook
noun 
  1. (grammar) A verb form which does not function as a predicate, or a word derived from a verb. In English, infinitives, participles and gerunds are verbals.
verb (verbals, verballing, verballed)
  1. (context, transitive, Australia) To fabricate a confession
    • 1982, John A. Andrews, Human Rights in Criminal Procedure: A Comparative Study, ISBN 9024725526, BRILL, page 128
    • : "The problem of 'verballing' is unlikely to disappear, whatever the legal status of the person detained."
    • 2001, Chris Cunneen, Conflict, Politics and Crime: Aboriginal Communities and the Police, ISBN 1864487194, Allen & Unwin, page 116
    • : "Condren had always claimed that he was assaulted and verballed by police over the murder he had supposedly confessed to committing."
    • 2004, Jeremy Gans & Andrew Palmer, Australian Principles of Evidence, ISBN 1876905123, Routledge Cavendish, page 504
    • : "Moreover, given the risk of verballing, it is by no means apparent that it is in the interests of justice that the prosecution have the benefit of admissions that are made on occasions when recordings are impracticable."
adjective 
  1. Of, or relating to words.
  2. Concerned with the words, rather than the substance of a text.
  3. Consisting of words only.
  4. Expressly spoken or written, as opposed to implied.
  5. (grammar) Derived from, or having the nature of a verb.
  6. (grammar) Used to form a verb.
  7. Spoken and not written; oral.
     
verbalize Tweet Definition of verbalize Like Definition of verbalize on Facebook
verb (verbaliz, ing)
  1. To speak or to use words to express.
Bill became tongue-tied and could not his thoughts in the presence of the girl he had a crush on.
  1. (grammar) To adapt a word of another part of speech as a verb.
     
verbal noun Tweet Definition of verbal noun Like Definition of verbal noun on Facebook
noun (or verbal substantive)
  1. (grammar): A noun that is morphologically related to a verb and similar to it in meaning; in English it has the form of a present participle and ends in -ing:
Brisk walking is good exercise.
     
verbid Tweet Definition of verbid Like Definition of verbid on Facebook
noun 
  1. a verbal noun or adjective.
     
verbify Tweet Definition of verbify Like Definition of verbify on Facebook
verb (verbifies, verbifying, verbified)
  1. (transitive, nonstandard) To use a noun as a verb.
  2. (transitive, nonstandard, slang) To derive a verb from a pre-existing noun.
     
vocative Tweet Definition of vocative Like Definition of vocative on Facebook
noun 
  1. (grammar) The vocative case
adjective 
  1. Of or pertaining to calling; used in calling or vocation.
  2. (grammar) used in address; appellative; " said of that case or form of the noun, pronoun, or adjective, in which a person or thing is addressed; as, Domine, O Lord.
     

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