intervene
VerbOpen English WordNet
Verb (3)intervened, intervening
- get involved, so as to alter or hinder an action, or through force or threat of force“Why did the U.S. not intervene earlier in WW II?”Synonyms: step ininterfereinterposeMore general interactMore specific meddle, interlope
- be placed or located between other things or extend between spaces and events“This interlude intervenes between the two movements”“Eight days intervened”More general lie
- occur between other event or between certain points of time“the war intervened between the birth of her two children”More general happen, hap
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: L. intervenire, interventum, to intervene, to hinder; inter between + venire to come; akin to E. come: cf. F. intervenir. See Come.
1. To come between, or to be between, persons or things; — followed by between; as, the Mediterranean intervenes between Europe and Africa.
2. To occur, fall, or come between, points of time, or events; as, an instant intervened between the flash and the report; nothing intervened ( i. e., between the intention and the execution) to prevent the undertaking.
3. To interpose; as, to intervene to settle a quarrel.
4. In a suit to which one has not been made a party, to put forward a defense of one's interest in the subject matter. Benjamin Vaughan. Abbott
To come between. rare
Self-sown woodlands of birch, alder, etc., intervening the different estates.— Thomas DeQuincey
A coming between; intervention; meeting. obsolete Sir Henry Wotton
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54