From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishverbverb /vɜːb $ vɜːrb/ ●●● noun [countable] SLGa word or group of words that describes an action, experience, or state, such as ‘come’, ‘see’, and ‘put on’ → auxiliary verb, linking verb, modal verb, phrasal verbCOLLOCATIONSadjectivestransitive (=needing an object)'Produce' is a transitive verb.intransitive (=not needing an object)'Bleed' is an intransitive verb.regular/irregular (=following a regular pattern, or not following one)Spend time learning the forms of irregular verbs.active (=having the person or thing doing the action as the subject)Active verbs make your writing lively, personal and direct.passive (=having the person or thing that the action is done to as the subject)Passive verbs may be necessary, but use them sparingly.singular/plural (=showing whether the subject is one thing or person or more)The third person singular is 'lies'.finite (=showing tense and person)'Was' is a finite verb.the main verbIf a sentence does not have a main verb, it is not a full sentence.an auxiliary verb (=a verb that is used with another verb to show its tense, person, etc. In English these are 'be', 'do', and 'have')a linking verb (also copula) (=a verb that connects the subject of a sentence with a word that describes the subject, for example 'seem' in the sentence 'the house seems big')a modal verb (=a verb that is used with other verbs to express ideas such as possibility, permission, or intention. In English, these verbs are 'can', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'shall', 'should', 'will', 'would', 'must', 'ought to', 'used to', 'need', and 'had better')a phrasal verb (=a group of words that is used like a verb and consists of a verb with an adverb or preposition after it, for example 'set off' or 'look after')verbsa verb agrees with the subjectIn Arabic, all verbs agree with their subjects in gender and number.a verb inflects (=has different forms showing tense)In Old English, verbs were highly inflected.verb + NOUNa verb formYou have to choose the appropriate verb form.a verb ending (=the end part of a verb, which changes to show tense or person)"-ed" is a regular past tense verb ending.phrasesthe subject of a verb (=a noun, pronoun etc that performs the action of the verb or about which something is stated)In the sentence 'I like pizza.', "I" is the subject of the verb.the object of a verb (=a noun, pronoun etc that an action is done to)"The ball" is the object of the verb in "I hit the ball."
Examples from the Corpus
verb• There's a verb to describe these activities in the States: to futz.• It will be noted that these begin with a verb stating the actions students are expected to show.• The analysis will also automatically identify all pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and verb forms in the text.• Another section is devoted entirely to grammar drills, including the use of prepositions, comparatives, negatives and verb tenses.• In the next section we will also discuss the loss of a morphological rule that created causative verbs from adjectives.• The main noun in the subject is boldfaced, the verb is italicised.• The verb in question is a contractible verb, just as in the case of Tag-Controlled Deletion.• Similarly, transitive verbs contrast directly with intransitive verbs, but only indirectly with adjectives.Origin verb (1300-1400) Old French verbe, from Latin verbum “word, verb” 