Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make into a verb; use as a verb; verbalize.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To make into a verb; to use as a verb; to verbalize.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive, nonstandard To use a noun as a verb via anthimeria.
  • verb transitive, nonstandard, slang To derive a verb from a pre-existing noun.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make into a verb

Etymologies

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Examples

Comments

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  • Very old practice. Looking at the discussion under specific examples (such as favorited) it becomes clear that we tend not to like or be resistant to the newer verb forms – dialogue is one. But sometimes even older examples prove bothersome, such as "partying".

    My personal bug-bear is gift in verb form. It makes my skin crawl.

    Yet this is a very old usage indeed. However, it's one that's been sustained in daily usage only in North America. So to my Aussie ears it always rings false when I come across sentences like "She gifted me a lovely pot plant for Christmas". Because in my part of the world we'd say "She gave me a lovely pot plant for Christmas." And "gave" seems perfectly adequate.

    That said, as I understand it "gift" (v) embraces the idea of giving as a present, and in North America that seems to be distinguished from the ordinary giving of something ("I gave those old t-shirts to my sister so she could pack glassware."). So using the verb form of "gift" allows for a greater distinction of meaning and less ambiguity than using "gave" for both functions. But that intellectual appreciation hasn't helped me warm to the word one bit, alas.

    March 16, 2008

  • See also verbed and anthimeria.

    March 18, 2008

  • frindley, I suppose you'll never see this but what about "present" as a verb? A gift is similar to a present, and things are presented all the time (powerpoints, arms, feature films etc.) but if you pronounce it exactly like the noun, you're not really verbifying that hard because of the existing verb present, but it still carries the same connotations as "to gift" as detailed in your comment.

    December 28, 2017