intransitive verb

American  

noun

1. a verb that indicates a complete action without being accompanied by a direct object, as sit or lie, and, in English, that does not form a passive.

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intransitive verb Cultural  

1. A verb that does not need a direct object to complete its meaning. Run, sleep, travel, wonder, and die are all intransitive verbs. (Compare transitive verb.)

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Discover More

Some verbs can be intransitive in one sentence and transitive in another. Boiled is intransitive in “My blood boiled” but transitive in “I boiled some water.”

Etymology

Origin of intransitive verb

First recorded in 1605–15

Compare meaning

How does intransitive-verb compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• transitive verb vs. intransitive verb

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

intransitive verb

“To bald” may not be a common intransitive verb, but that has not prevented “balding” from entering the language as a participle.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 2, 2019

So what the critics really meant is that the Times erred in using an intransitive verb.

From Economist ● May 24, 2018

Fratch, which is defined as "dispute; quarrel," and which is dialectal English in origin ... is used both as intransitive verb and noun.

From Time Magazine Archive

When used predicatively, as yooroang or yoorwang, he is strong, an adjective can be conjugated through all the tenses and moods of an intransitive verb: Present Tense.

From The Gundungurra Language by Mathews, R. H. (Robert Hamilton)

An alleviation of the difficulty has been sought in the adoption of the intransitive verb, which "expresses an action that is confined to the actor or agent."

From Lectures on Language As Particularly Connected with English Grammar. by Balch, William Stevens