intervene

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To become involved in a situation, so as to alter or prevent an action.

   • The police had to be called to intervene in the fight.
   • Nature film-makers are discouraged from intervening in the events they are attempting to capture on film.
2. 2

   To occur, fall, or come between, points of time, or events.

   • An instant intervened between the flash and the report.
   • I hadn't seen him since we were in school, and the intervening years had not been kind to him.
3. 3

   To occur or act as an obstacle or delay.

   • Nothing intervened to prevent the undertaking.
   • For while so near each other thus all day Our task we choose, what wonder if so near Looks intervene and smiles, or object new Casual discourse draw on, which intermits Our dayes work brought to little,
   • I reproach’d my self with my Easiness, that would not sow any more Corn one Year than would just serve me till the next Season, as if no Accident could intervene to prevent my enjoying the Crop that was upon the Ground;
4. ›+ 3 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      To say (something) in the middle of a conversation or discussion between other people, or…

      To say (something) in the middle of a conversation or discussion between other people, or to respond to a situation involving other people.

      • Young Scarfe stared, astounded. “You haven’t met before,” Mrs. Gould intervened. “Mr. Decoud—Mr. Scarfe.”
      • “That sounds suspiciously like bigotry to me,” intervened Maitland, sweetening his impertinence with a dimpled smile.
      • They all talked nonstop. That is, if you didn’t intervene. They were accustomed to being interrupted.
   2. 5

      To come between, or to be between, persons or things.

      • The Mediterranean intervenes between Europe and Africa.
      • If the profits of the merchant importer or merchant manufacturer were taxed, equality seemed to require that those of all the middle buyers, who intervened between either of them and the consumer, should likewise be taxed.
   3. 6

      In a suit to which one has not been made a party, to put forward a defense of one's…

      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.

      • an application for leave (i.e. permission) to intervene

The neighborhood

• neighborintervener
• neighborintervention