moved

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of move.

   The company moved its headquarters across the river years ago.

   All the boxes had been moved before the new tenants arrived.

   Note

   Move is a regular verb, so a single -ed spelling serves every slot: she moved (past), they have moved (perfect), the boxes were moved (passive). The passive is where meanings blur. When the verb means to rouse by appeal or persuasion, was moved drifts toward the adjective of feeling. Only a following by-phrase or an object of the action keeps it a verb.

2. 2
   adjective

   Affected by strong emotion; emotionally touched.

   The audience was visibly moved as the veteran finished his story.

   Deeply moved by the gesture, she struggled to find the words to thank them.

   Similartouched, affected, overcome

   Oppositeunmoved, indifferent

   Note

   What separates the adjective from the bare participle is that it can be graded: more moved, most moved, and freely with intensifiers such as deeply, visibly or extremely. That gives a quick test when the two look alike. The boxes were moved reports an action done to them, while I was extremely moved describes a state of feeling. Touched is the quieter near-synonym.

3. 3
   adjectiveobsolete

   Persuaded of the truth of something; convinced.

   Note

   Here it is the mind, not the heart, that has been stirred, and the usage has long since died out. In Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great (c. 1587–1588), "I am strongly moved that…" means "I am firmly convinced that…", with a that-clause carrying the belief. Today's readers will hear the emotional meaning instead, so use convinced or persuaded in modern writing and keep this sense for reading older texts.

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