See also: Verderben

German edit

Etymology edit

From a merger of Middle High German verderben (to perish, die) (strong verb) and verderben (bring ruin to, kill, damage) (weak verb). The former is from Old High German *farderban, inherited from Proto-West Germanic *fraderban, which is in turn from Proto-Germanic *derbaną (to perish).

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /fɛɐ̯ˈdɛʁbən/
  • Hyphenation: ver‧der‧ben
  • Homophone: Verderben
  • (file)

Verb edit

verderben (class 3 strong, third-person singular present verdirbt, past tense verdarb, past participle verdorben, past subjunctive verdürbe, auxiliary haben or sein)

  1. (transitive) to deprive (someone) of (something); to rob (someone) of (some feeling) [auxiliary haben]
  2. (transitive) to ruin; to render (something) useless; to corrupt; to spoil [auxiliary haben]
  3. (intransitive, usually of food) to spoil; to rot; to perish [auxiliary sein]
  4. (intransitive) to be offensive; to live sinfully [auxiliary sein]

Usage notes edit

In most contexts, the verb has strong conjugation. However, it has weak conjugation when referring to a written document: Der Text ist verderbt – The text is corrupted. (Chiefly, only the past participle is used in this sense.) Also, in archaic German, verderbt could be used in other senses as well.

Conjugation edit

Derived terms edit

Further reading edit

  • verderben” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • verderben” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • verderben” in Duden online
  • verderben” in OpenThesaurus.de