Also 4–7 verbe. [a. OF. (also mod.F.) verbe or ad. L. verbum word, verb (whence also It., Sp., Pg. verbo).]
1. Gram. That part of speech by which an assertion is made, or which serves to connect a subject with a predicate.
For the numerous kinds of verbs distinguished by special epithets see the adjs. active, auxiliary, deponent, desiderative, frequentative, etc.
1388. Wycliffite Bible, Prol. xv. (1850), I. 57. Sumtyme it mai wel be resoluid into a verbe of the same tens.
1483. Cath. Angl., 400/2. A verbe, verbum.
1530. Palsgr., Introd., p. xxx. Of verbes in the frenche tong be two dyvers sortes.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 120 b. The greke verbe ἐκπίπτειν souneth in latin excidere.
1544. trans. Littleton’s Tenures (1574), 107 b. In some case these Verbes dedi & concessi have the same effect in substaunce.
1655. S. Ashe, Fun. Serm. Gataker, 6. There is no verb to limit it unto any term of time, either past, present, or to come.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., III. i. § 8. 303. That part of speech, which by our Common Grammarians is stiled a Verb,… ought to have no distinct place amongst Integrals in a Philosophical Grammar.
1725. Watts, Logic, I. iv. § 6. There are also verbs, or words of action, which are equivocal as well as nouns or names.
1784. Cowper, Tiroc., 619. No nourishment to feed his growing mind, But conjugated verbs and nouns declin’d?
1835. T. Mitchell, Acharn. of Aristoph., 241, note. The four forms of future verbs with a passive signification, which occur in Greek writers.
1904. Verney Mem., I. 42. The inversion of the sentences, the verb coming at the end, is curiously like the German construction.
fig. 1730. Fielding, Rape upon Rape, II. v. I will be a verb active, and you shall be a verb passive.
b. attrib. and Comb., as verb-formation, -grinder, -root, -stem.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, V. i. ¶ 3. The verb-grinder engendered in his noddle a most ingenious device.
1865. Tylor, Early Hist. Man., iv. 63. The reference of substantives to a verb-root in the Aryan languages.
1884. Philol. Soc. Trans., 557. A more systematic consideration of the verb-formations.
1904. H. Bradley, Making of English, 124. Prefixing an adverb to a verb-stem, a verbal noun, or a participle, such as outbreak, outfit, [etc.].
† 2. Principal verb, the chief or most important thing. Obs.
1616. J. Lane, Contn. Sqr.’s T., VII. 582. ‘Sirrah,’ Cambuscan lowrd, ‘all yee haue loste Your principale verbe (credite) which yee boste.’
1642. Remonstr. Lords & Comm. in Parl., 26 May, 20. That therefore which is the principle Verbe in this Statute, is the serving of the King for the time being.
1670. in C. N. Robinson, Brit. Fleet (1894), 122. The Quality of the Commodity is not considered, but the gratuity to the officer is the principal Verb.
1728. North, Mem. Music (1846), 80. The violin was scarce knowne tho’ now the principall verb.
† 3. A word. Obs. rare.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1744), IX. 125. That so it might appear, that the assistance of the spirit promised to the church was not a vain thing, or a mere verb.
