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In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government ought to be instructed... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people. Preface to 1828 Dictionary
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INTRANS'ITIVE, a. [L. intransitivus; in and transeo, to pass over.]
In grammar, an intransitive verb is one which expresses an action or state that is limited to the agent, or in other words, an action that does not pass over to, or operate upon an object; as, I walk; I run; I sleep.
Not passing farther;
kept; detained.
[R.]
And then it is for the image's sake and so far is intransitive; but whatever is paid more to the image is transitive and passes further. Jer. Taylor. Not transitive; not passing
over to an object; expressing an action or state that is limited to
the agent or subject, or, in other words, an action which does not
require an object to complete the sense; as, an intransitive
verb, e. g., the bird flies; the dog
runs.
* Intransitive verbs have no passive form. Some verbs which appear at first sight to be intransitive are in reality, or were originally, transitive verbs with a reflexive or other object omitted; as, he keeps (i. e., himself) aloof from danger. Intransitive verbs may take a noun of kindred signification for a cognate object; as, he died the death of a hero; he dreamed a dream. Some intransitive verbs, by the addition of a preposition, become transitive, and so admit of a passive voice; as, the man laughed at; he was laughed at by the man. | ||||||||