intervene
Formsintervenes, intervening, intervened
- 1To get involved in a situation with the aim of changing its course or keeping something from being done.
The government chose to intervene in the dispute before it escalated further.
She intervened to stop her colleague from making a costly mistake.
Similarinterfere
Note
Most of the word's everyday weight sits here, and its history runs backward. The verb was formed from the noun intervention, or taken directly from Latin interveniō, "come between." The situation entered is introduced by in: you intervene in a fight or in a dispute. When the purpose is named, a to-infinitive follows, as in intervening to stop a mistake. Step in is the plainer near-synonym.
- 2To say something in the middle of others' conversation, or to step in and respond to a situation involving other people.
Before the debate grew heated, the moderator chose to intervene.
She intervened in the discussion to correct a misunderstanding.
Similarinterrupt
Note
A reporting verb for dialogue, used where said might stand but carrying the sense of cutting in. Conrad's Nostromo (1904) has "'You haven't met before,' Mrs. Gould intervened." Like said, it can follow the quoted words with the speaker inverted, as in "intervened Maitland." It can also stand without any reported words, meaning simply to interrupt others' talk, much as interrupt does.
- 3To occur or act in a way that creates an obstacle or causes a delay.
Family obligations intervened, and the project slipped by several months.
Should no emergencies intervene, the launch will proceed as scheduled.
Similararise, interfere, intrude, occur
Note
Here circumstance gets in the way: an accident, sleep, or nothing at all. The common pattern is intervene to prevent, as in "nothing intervened to prevent the undertaking." Daniel Defoe (1719) uses it to fear that some accident could intervene to prevent his harvest. Compare the stepping-in sense, where someone chooses to act. In this sense, events act on their own and usually cause delay.
- 4To occur or fall between points in time or between events.
Two decades intervened between his first novel and his second.
The years that intervene between graduation and retirement shape a career.
Note
Time does the coming-between here: an instant, decades, years. The sense often appears as a participle before a noun, as in the intervening years, which is the easiest way to use it naturally. Older writers let feelings fall between moments too. Ann Radcliffe's The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) has a sigh that "would sometimes intervene" amid her hero's contentment.
- 5To occupy the space between people or things, or to come into that position.
Thick walls intervene between the apartments to reduce noise.
Several rows of seats intervened between us and the stage.
Note
The spatial sense covers seas, walls and even middlemen. Adam Smith writes of the buyers who "intervened between" the merchant and the consumer. Between is the normal partner. Thomas De Quincey, in 1839, gives it a direct object instead, with woodlands "intervening the different estates." That transitive use is worth recognizing in older prose, but the between construction is the safe choice.
- 6To enter a lawsuit to which one is not already a party, in order to assert one's own interest in the matter.
The insurer moved to intervene in the suit, claiming a direct financial stake.
Several environmental groups intervened in the case challenging the permit.
Note
In court the word is procedural. An outsider to a lawsuit does not simply join in but makes an application for leave, meaning permission, to intervene. The newcomer's footing is an interest in what the suit is about. That separates it from the everyday stepping-in sense: a legal intervener comes to defend a stake of its own, not merely to stop a quarrel between others.
Practice
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Origin
This word is a back-formation from 'intervention', and/or comes from the Latin verb 'intervenio', meaning 'to come between'.