Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A form of a verb that in some languages, such as English, can function independently as an adjective, as the past participle baked in We had some baked beans, and is used with an auxiliary verb to indicate tense, aspect, or voice, as the past participle baked in the passive sentence The beans were baked too long.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Whatever partakes of the nature of two or more other things; something that is part one thing and part another; a mongrel.
- noun In gram., a verbal adjective that participates or shares in the construction of the verb to which it belongs, and so has in a certain manner and degree a place in the verbal system; a word having the value of an adjective as part of speech, but so regularly made from a verb, and associated with it in meaning and construction, as to seem to belong to the verb.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Gram.) A part of speech partaking of the nature of both verb and adjective; a form of a verb, or verbal adjective, modifying a noun, but taking the adjuncts of the verb from which it is derived. In the sentences: a letter is written; being asleep he did not hear; exhausted by toil he will sleep soundly, -- written, being, and exhaustedare
participles . - noun obsolete Anything that partakes of the nature of different things.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun grammar A form of a
verb that may function as anadjective ornoun . English has two types of participles: thepresent participle and thepast participle .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a non-finite form of the verb; in English it is used adjectivally and to form compound tenses
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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In the sentence, The worm _crushed_ under my foot died, _crushed_, expressing the action as assumed, is, as you have already learned, a participle; and, as the action is completed, we call it a _past participle_.
Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room Brainerd Kellogg
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In the sentence, The worm _crushed_ under my foot died, _crushed_, expressing the action as assumed, is, as you have already learned, a participle; and, as the action is completed, we call it a _past participle_.
Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room Brainerd Kellogg
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In the sentence, The worm _crushed_ under my foot died, _crushed_, expressing the action as assumed, is, as you have already learned, a participle; and, as the action is completed, we call it a _past participle_.
Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room Brainerd Kellogg
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The thing we call a participle, being a mixture of a verb and noun is nothing of itself, as are not the common names of male and female qualities (i. e, adjectives), but in construction it is put with others, in regard of tenses belonging to verbs, in regard of cases to nouns.
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The past participle is here coincident in time with the preceding verb, ye were
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But worse, it’s completely unclear who the dangling participle is supposed to refer to.
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But worse, it’s completely unclear who the dangling participle is supposed to refer to.
An honestly bad dangling participle « Motivated Grammar 2008
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The verb form in all these cases is called a participle, and must be used in connection with either a nominative or objective case of a noun or pronoun.
Practical Grammar and Composition Thomas Wood
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"A participle is a form of a verb partaking of the nature of an adjective or a noun and expressing action or _human_ being as flying and sleep."
The American Missionary — Volume 43, No. 06, June, 1889 Various
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-- _Hearing_ is a form of the verb called participle because the act expressed by it is merely assumed, and it shares the nature of an adjective and that of a verb.
Higher Lessons in English A work on english grammar and composition Brainerd Kellogg
uselessness commented on the word participle
Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.
January 25, 2007
heypacksees commented on the word participle
verb as adjective (cf. gerund, attributive)
January 23, 2011