intervene

Back-formation from intervention, and/or from Latin interveniō (“come between”, verb).

• Rhymes: -iːn

intervene (third-person singular simple present intervenes, present participle intervening, simple past and past participle intervened)

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

   Synonyms: interfere, step in

   The police had to be called to intervene in the fight.

   • 2018, Aamna Mohdin, “Top film-makers back penguin intervention on Attenborough show,” The Guardian, 19 November, 2018,

     Nature film-makers are discouraged from intervening in the events they are attempting to capture on film.

2. (intransitive) 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.

   • 1690, John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, London: Awnsham Churchill, Book 2, Chapter 16, p. 417,

     […] it is plain, that shaking off a Power, which Force, and not Right, hath set over any one, though it hath the Name of Rebellion; yet is no Offence before God, but that which he allows and countenances, though even Promises and Covenants, when obtain’d by force, have intervened.

   • 1794, Ann Radcliffe, The Mysteries of Udolpho, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, Volume 1, Chapter 4, p. 93,

     Even sad vicissitude amus’d his soul;

     And if a sigh would sometimes intervene,

     And down his cheek a tear of pity roll,

     A sigh, a tear, so sweet, he wish’d not to controul.

   • 1813, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 11,

     She counted the days that must intervene before their invitation could be sent; hopeless of seeing him before.

   • 1963, John le Carré, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold, New York: Coward-McCann, 1964, Chapter 17, p. 176,

     […] he was prepared to allow long silences to intervene rather than exchange pointless words.

3. (intransitive) To occur or act as an obstacle or delay.

   Nothing intervened to prevent the undertaking.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 8, lines 220-224,

     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,

   • 1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, London: W. Taylor, p. 184,

     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;

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, Chapter 23,

     […] a numbness, an occasional stupor, fell upon my mind even in the midst of my terrors, until sleep at last intervened, and in my sea-tossed coracle I lay and dreamed of home […]

   • 1906, Jack London, White Fang, Part 1, Chapter 3,

     He kept the fire brightly blazing, for he knew that it alone intervened between the flesh of his body and their hungry fangs.

   • 1918, Willa Cather, My Ántonia, Book 5, Chapter 1,

     I told Ántonia I would come back, but life intervened, and it was twenty years before I kept my promise.

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

   Synonym: interrupt

   • 1904, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, Part 2, Chapter 4,

     Young Scarfe stared, astounded. “You haven’t met before,” Mrs. Gould intervened. “Mr. Decoud—Mr. Scarfe.”

   • 1970, J. G. Farrell, Troubles, New York: Knopf, 1971, Part 2, p. 409,

     “That sounds suspiciously like bigotry to me,” intervened Maitland, sweetening his impertinence with a dimpled smile.

   • 2014, Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers, New York: Scribner, Chapter 10, p. 154,

     They all talked nonstop. That is, if you didn’t intervene. They were accustomed to being interrupted.

5. (transitive, intransitive) To come between, or to be between, persons or things.

   The Mediterranean intervenes between Europe and Africa.

   • 1668, Joseph Glanvill, Plus Ultra, or, The Progress and Advancement of Knowledge since the Days of Aristotle, London: James Collins, Chapter 11, p. 79,

     How defective the Art of Navigation was in elder Times, when they Sailed by the observation of the Stars, is easie to be imagin’d: For in dark weather, when their Pleiades, Helice, and Cynosura were hidden from them by the intervening Clouds, the Mariner was at a loss for his Guide, and exposed to the casual conduct of the Winds and Tides.

   • 1776, Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, London: W. Strahan and T. Cadell, Volume 2, Book 5, Chapter 2, Part 2, Article 4, p. 522,

     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.

   • 1839, Thomas De Quincey, “Sketches of Life and Manners; from the Autobiography of an English Opium-Eater: Recollections of Grasmere,” Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 6, September, 1839, p. 569,

     […] small fields and miniature meadows, separated […] by wild self-sown woodlands of birch, alder, holly, mountain ash, and hazel, that meander through the valley, intervening the different estates with natural sylvan marches […]

   • 1912, Zane Grey, Riders of the Purple Sage, Chapter 22,

     Venters calculated that a mile or more still intervened between them and the riders.

   • 1979, William Styron, Sophie’s Choice, New York: Bantam, 1980, Chapter 3,

     I had begun to eye the door and the intervening furniture, and quickly schemed out the best way of immediate exit.

6. (law) 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.[1]

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

• intervener
• intervention