Pro-verb

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A pro-form used to substitute for a verb or verb phrase.

    "“They herd cattle, and raise corn, just as we used to do”; i.e., to herd cattle and raise corn. Do is sometimes thus used as a sort of pro-verb to represent an active verb or a phrase."

Example

More examples

"“They herd cattle, and raise corn, just as we used to do”; i.e., to herd cattle and raise corn. Do is sometimes thus used as a sort of pro-verb to represent an active verb or a phrase."

Etymology

Formed in English of pro- (“substituting for”) + verb.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.