Etymology

Noun

1. A word that indicates an action, an event or a state.

   The word “speak” is an English verb.

Usage notes

Quotations

• 2001 — Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl, p 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.

Verb

1. 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... .

   • 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

1. 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.
   • 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.