interpose
Americanverb (used with object)
-
interposes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
interposed,
past participle, past
-
interposing
present participle
-
to place between; cause to intervene.
to interpose an opaque body between a light and the eye.
-
to put (a barrier, obstacle, etc.) between or in the way of.
-
to put in (a remark, question, etc.) in the midst of a conversation, discourse, or the like.
- Synonyms:
- interject
-
to bring (influence, action, etc.) to bear between parties, or on behalf of a party or person.
verb (used without object)
-
interposes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
interposed,
past participle, past
-
interposing
present participle
verb
-
to put or place between or among other things
-
to introduce (comments, questions, etc) into a speech or conversation; interject
-
to exert or use power, influence, or action in order to alter or intervene in (a situation)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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interposalnoun
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interposernoun
-
interposableadjective
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uninterposedadjective
-
uninterposingadjective
-
interposinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
interposesimple
-
interposessimple
-
have interposedperfect
-
has interposedperfect
-
am interposingprogressive
-
are interposingprogressive
-
is interposingprogressive
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have been interposingperfect progressive
-
has been interposingperfect progressive
Past
-
interposedsimple
-
had interposedperfect
-
was interposingprogressive
-
were interposingprogressive
-
had been interposingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of interpose
From the Middle French word interposer, dating back to 1590–1600. See inter-, pose 1
Explanation
It's annoying when advertisers interpose commercials between segments of your favorite TV show. To interpose is to interrupt by placing something in between other things. If you look closely at the word interpose, you'll see inter, which means "between," and pose, which means "position." Don't think of this only in the physical sense though. It can also mean "interject," or say quickly, and also "get involved in." If you want to interpose when another person interposes himself between you and your friend in a long queue, you might interpose, "Hey, no cutting!"
Vocabulary lists containing interpose
Lord of the Flies
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Julius Caesar
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1984
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Critics mocked the former president online, with some leaping to point out that he also incorrectly used "interpose" in his excuse.
From Salon ● Feb. 15, 2024
But those who try to interpose the regime in the most personal aspects of people’s lives, including the choice of what to wear, run different kinds of risks.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 28, 2022
Over the weekend, he hastened to testify to the Justice Department inspector general and the Senate Judiciary Committee before Trump could seek to interpose assertions of executive privilege.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 8, 2021
“Courts should police carefully against attempts to use such challenges as tools to interpose unjustified delay,” Justice Gorsuch wrote.
From New York Times ● Apr. 1, 2019
The kindly inspector with the granite face must have thought he had been indulgent enough, for he stepped forward to brush away Cecilia’s hand and interpose himself.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
As Rachel interposes herself in the police investigation, befriending Scott and antagonizing Tom, the movie adeptly guides viewers to all the wrong conclusions.
From Slate ● Oct. 6, 2016
BST21:03 Fiorina interposes a discourse on Iran policy.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 16, 2015
There’s an awkward pause, and the friend apologetically interposes, “He doesn’t mean homosexual, Uncle Ben.”
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2014
A few days later, the examining judge replied: “Dear Sir,—The court interposes no objection to your going to Mexico.”
From Slate ● Mar. 26, 2013
An instant of self-indulgence—like a phantom that interposes itself between lovers to feel what it is to be alive.
From "Strange the Dreamer" by Laini Taylor
“I’m not a Nikki fan and I’m not a Pelosi fan and when I purposely interposed names they said, ‘He didn’t know Pelosi from Nikki, from Tricky Nikki,” he said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
Such a note, seemingly interposed at random, echoes Whitman and DeFeo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2023
Then a newsreel begins to play - it shows a montage of India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan's founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, interposed with scenes of violence that marked the partition.
From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2022
Thao interposed himself between Floyd and bystanders, video showed, looking on as he struggled.
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2020
The shell was interesting and pretty and a worthy plaything; but the vivid phantoms of his day-dream still interposed between him and Piggy, who in this context was an irrelevance.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
This device is so effective, in fact, that Kijak borrows it wholesale, repeatedly interposing these moments of gay serendipity, many of them identical to those in “Home Movies.”
From New York Times ● Jun. 28, 2023
The message was encoded by mechanically interposing or not interposing a three-inch block of brass in the muon beam every time a 12-billion-electron-volt synchrotron at the Argonne National Laboratory emitted a short burst of particles.
From Scientific American ● Sep. 1, 2022
White southerners began publishing books that would introduce into the classroom values that they held dear, interposing lessons deemed appropriate for a slave society into elementary reading and spelling books.
From Slate ● Dec. 8, 2017
But others worry about a machine interposing between parent and child.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 22, 2016
Mama asked, interposing herself between me and Dad.
From "Bad Boy" by Walter Dean Myers
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
