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

Some dictionaries give locate as an intransitive verb having that meaning, but—well, dictionaries are funny.

From Write It Right A Little Blacklist of Literary Faults by Bierce, Ambrose

The adverb there would, therefore, be used as a predicant or intransitive verb, and might be conjugated to denote different modes, tenses, numbers, persons, etc.

From On the Evolution of Language First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 1-16 by Powell, John Wesley