verbose - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (2024)

From Latin verbōsus (“prolix, wordy, verbose”) + English -ose (suffix meaning ‘full of; like’). Verbōsus is derived from verbum (“word”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *werh₁- (“to say, speak”)) + -ōsus (suffix meaning ‘full of, overly, prone to’ forming adjectives from nouns).^[1] Equivalent to verb + -ose.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /vəˈbəʊs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /vɚˈboʊs/
• Hyphenation: verb‧ose
• Rhymes: -əʊs

verbose (comparative more verbose, superlative most verbose)

1. Containing or using more words than necessary; long-winded, wordy. [from 17th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:verbose

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:concise

   • 1672, W[illiam] P[enn], “To the Impartial Reader”, in The Spirit of Truth Vindicated, against that of Error & Envy;[…], [London: […] Andrew Sowle...], →OCLC, page 8:

     I omit more than an Hundred Things, that would engage to perſonal Reflection; for my Soul hath no Pleaſure in ſtriving therein, as knowing the inconſiſtancy of that uncharitable virulent Temper with a Chriſtian Spirit, which I am aſſured is quite another Thing, from what is Verboſe, Abuſive[,] Cavilling, Airy, and meerly Notional; [...]

   • 1692, John Milton, “The Author’s Preface”, in [Joseph Washington], transl., A Defence of the People of England,[…]: In Answer to Salmasius’s Defence of the King, [London?: s.n.], →OCLC, page i:

     [...] I might ſeem to deſerve juſtly to be accounted a verboſe and ſilly Defender; [...]

     See Also

     reputation - Wiktionary, the free dictionaryOpinion | ‘Woman’: the story of the word’s origin and evolutionselfish - Wiktionary, the free dictionarysufficient - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

   • 1751, [Alain-René Lesage], “Gil Blas Meets His Dear Friend Fabricius at Court:[…]”, in [Tobias George Smollett], transl., The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane.[…], 3rd edition, volume III, London: […] J. Osborn,[…], →OCLC, book VII, page 87:

     Thy ſonnet is a piece of verboſe fuſtian; and thy preface is compoſed of far-fetch'd expreſſions, words that have not the publick ſtamp, perplexed phraſes; in a word, thy ſtile is quite peculiar to thyſelf; [...]

   • 1840 October, “Art. XI.—Critical Notices. 1.—A Reply to an Attack on Anthon’s Greek Reader, in the North American Review for July, 1840. The Knickerbocker. Extra. New York. 8vo. pp. 11.”, in The North American Review, volume LI, number CIX, Boston, Mass.: Ferdinand Andrews,[…], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 498:

     We mentioned as another of the faults of Dr. [Charles] Anthon's book, that it exhibited his usual verbose grandiloquence. [...] We objected, for instance, to the lexicon, as loaded with useless words; and we suggested that the probable cause was the desire of procuring for it the appearance of completeness and originality.

   • 1863, Edward W[illiam] Cox, “Letter VIII. Words—Sentences—Rhythm.”, in The Arts of Writing, Reading and Speaking, in Letters to a Law Student, London: John Crockford,[…], →OCLC, page 51:

     So with sentences or the combinations of words. Much skill is required for their construction. They must convey your meaning accurately, and as far as possible in the natural order of thought, and yet they must not be complex, involved, verbose, stiff, ungainly, or tautological. They must be brief, but not curt; explicit, but not verbose. Here, again, good taste must be your guide, rather than rules which teachers propound, but which the pupil never follows.

   • 1942 April, Bernard Fielding, “Crossing the Line”, in Railway Magazine, page 103:

     On the Furness section the sign at Grange is as brief—PASSENGERS MUST CROSS BY THE SUBWAY—as that at the next station, Arnside, is verbose: PASSENGERS ARE REQUESTED TO CROSS THE LINE BY THE BRIDGE. IT IS DANGEROUS TO CROSS THE RAILS.

   • 1999, Michael Hyman, Phani Vaddadi, “Dealing with Compiler-generated Code”, in Mike and Phani’s Essential C++ Techniques (Books for Professionals by Professionals), New York, N.Y.: Apress, →DOI, →ISBN, technique 46 (Wrap New to Save Space), page 40:

     In modern processors, you pay a bigger performance hit for having verbose code than for having an extra function call because larger code can cause secondary cache hits.

   • 2012, Karen J. Tietze, “Taking Medication Histories”, in Clinical Skills for Pharmacists: A Patient-focused Approach, 3rd edition, St. Louis, Mo.: Elsevier Mosby, →ISBN, page 38, column 1:

     Some patients are especially difficult to interview. Recalcitrant patients, verbose patients, confused patients, patients whose command of the English language is limited, patients with hearing impairments, patients with aphasia, impatient patients, and patients hospitalized in isolation rooms all may be difficult to interview. [...] The best approach for recalcitrant or verbose patients is to exert firm control of the interview and ask directed questions to draw information from the recalcitrant patient and redirect the verbose patient.

2. (computing) Producing detailed output for diagnostic purposes.

   • 2001, Richard Blum, “Common Postfix Problems”, in Postfix, Indianapolis, Ind.: Sams Publishing, →ISBN, part III (Advanced Postfix Server Topics), page 532:

     You should use verbose logging sparingly. Turning on verbose logging for every process would result in log files so large they would become useless.

     See Also

     impossible - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

   • 2009, Kerrie Meyler, Byron Holt, Greg Ramsey [et al.], “Desired Configuration Management”, in System Center Configuration Manager 2007 Unleashed‎^[1], Indianapolis, Ind.: Sams Publishing, →ISBN, part III (Configuration Manager Operations):

     Verbose logging adds extra detail and increases the descriptiveness of the log entries made. Verbose logging also adds one additional client log file that is specific to DCM, SmsClrHost.log, and one management point log file, MP_GetSdmPackage.log.

   • 2015, Andre Della Monica, Chris Shilt, Russ Rimmerman, Rushi Faldu, “Understanding Software Update Architecture: Client Side”, in Mitch Tulloch, editor, Microsoft System Center: Software Update Management Field Experience, Redmond, Wash.: Microsoft Press, →ISBN, page 19:

     For troubleshooting purposes, enable verbose logging for the WUA by following these steps: [...]

• verbosely
• verboseness

• verbosity

• verbose mode on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• verbosity on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• observe, obverse

verbose

1. feminine plural of verboso

verbōse

1. vocative masculine singular of verbōsus

• “verbose”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “verbose”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• verbose in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

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