Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Energy and enthusiasm in the expression of ideas, especially in artistic performance or composition: The revival lacked the verve of the original musical.
- n. Vitality; liveliness. See Synonyms at vigor.
- n. Archaic Aptitude; talent.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Enthusiasm, especially in what pertains to art and literature; spirit; energy.
Wiktionary
- n. Excitement of imagination such as that which animates a poet, artist, or musician, in composing or performing
- n. artistic energy and enthusiasm
- n. vigour, vitality and liveliness
- n. rapture, enthusiasm
- n. spirit, energy
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Excitement of imagination such as animates a poet, artist, or musician, in composing or performing; rapture; enthusiasm; spirit; energy.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an energetic style
Etymologies
- From French verve ("rapture, animation, spirit, caprice, whim") (Wiktionary)
- French, from Old French, fanciful expression, probably from Vulgar Latin *verva, from Latin verba, pl. of verbum, word. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Mistral tuned his lyre for a poetry that in verve and vigour does not yield to any of his previous works.”
“Its style is high in Latin verve: the language of ballet infused with rhumba, tango and salsa, as well as the athleticism of the Brazilian martial art form capoeira.”
“To have that kind of verve and oomph must be amazing.”
“According to a recent article in the NYT, NPR is dissatisfied with their record 28 million listeners, and has been doing research to determine how to give their programming more 'verve'.”
Bruce Gilardi: Take Them Away, Please (Or, How to Numb Your Mind in the Morning)
“Frustrating, because you wonder just where this kind of verve has been during the last 30 to 40 days.”
“I see this same kind of verve in the 62 papers that have initially joined with HuffPost to produce”
“Meanwhile, Oonagh lost her "verve" for nursing and did a diploma in holistic health.”
“That kind of verve is absent in "The House of Steinbrenner.”
“With a kind of verve no doubt fed by digital culture, sci-fi, "post-abstract" painting and the punk, new-wave and hip-hop music that fuel his age rather than the ashcan / surrealism / tragedy / jazz diet his AbEx predecessors noshed on, Tomory Dodge, in his latest work, makes barely imagistic images comprising mostly color, shape, gesture and plays of surface.”
“It'd be nice if we got more of them done with the kind of verve we've seen in this new”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘verve’.
-
Band or Brand?
Band names that are also common words or phrases.
genesis, who, beatles, journey, germs, sublime, doors, cars, nirvana, bangles, tool, pixies and 192 more...
-
WOOZ
Words contained in the screenplay of Wizard of Oz, 1939 film.
Comments show the actual "line" from the film.
The words are tagged for grade-levelpusillanimous, genuflect, cataclysmic, vernacular, peasantry, aver, caliginous, tedious, advent, careworn, bovine, commodity and 34 more...
-
Energetic
braze, raze, brisance, brisant, rive, catalyze, whipsaw, crack, actinic, sublimate, animate, vitalize and 88 more...
-
gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1908 more...
-
French Words & Phrases
Bonjour! (;
carte blanche, coup de grâce, cul-de-sac, faux pas, repertoire, bourgeois, verve, à la mode, en bloc
-
GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
-
Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
-
There's a word for that?
temerity, tacit, froward, faineant, caterwaul, menagerie, ennui, sine qua non, lissom, multifarious, laconic, katzenjammer and 240 more...
-
elvesoncrack's Words
lachrymose, blustering, fjord, chihuahua, chiffon, catalytic, stile, gefilte, prosh, thwart, ralph, ickle and 379 more...
-
summer words 2009
how many words can I make mine this summer?
largess, hoyden, catholic, fornicatress, quean, slattern, bildungsroman, sybaritic, descresent, nodus, frittle, callipygian and 529 more...
-
ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
-
List of words to expand my vocabulary
does what it says on the tin, and is severely needed.
indolent, insolent, idly, divulge, tattle, benign, roguish, daintily, idle, dowdy, sordid, wanton and 242 more...
-
The Collection
A somewhat discriminatory list of words and phrases collected for their euphonic or arcane appeal, interesting etymology, or concise definition of an otherwise unnamed phenomenon or concept.
ziggurat, neophilia, sucker punch, soporific, epoch, tundra, fiat, idiotproof, miscellany, metaphysics, cryptozoology, dysphoria and 850 more...
-
To Learn
Words to learn via rote repetition.
atechnic, veridical, abjure, recrudescence, acquisitiveness, adipocere, alembic, adventitious, aliment, alimentiveness, amativeness, anterior and 111 more...
-
Sunbeam
Zoom'om'om; inspiration, vitality, solemness, and sunrays...
inspiral, activation, envision, myselves, recognition, imagination, repattern, exponential, flashforward, syncronicity, swish, sensation and 177 more...
-
Favorite Five-Letter Words
Just what it sounds like. My favorites. Five letters.
ennui, barfy, samba, schwa, beefy, chunk, queef, spasm, skulk, bowel, elbow, fruit and 235 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for verve.
dbekeny LION
(sings)
Yeh, it's sad, believe me, Missy
When you're born to be a sissy,
Without the vim and verve.
But I could show my prowess --
Be a lion not a mou-ess --
If I only had the nerve
I'm afraid there's no denyin'
I'm just a dande-lion --
A fate I don't deserve.
I'd be brave as a blizzard --
Jun 11, 2010