[Sidenote: _Definition._]

203. A transitive verb is one which must have an object to complete
its meaning, and to receive the action expressed.

[Sidenote: _The nature of intransitive verbs._]

204. Examine the verbs in the following paragraph:--

She _sprang up_ at that thought, and, taking the staff which
always guided her steps, she _hastened_ to the neighboring shrine
of Isis. Till she _had been_ under the guardianship of the kindly
Greek, that staff _had sufficed_ to conduct the poor blind girl
from corner to corner of Pompeii.--BULWER

In this there are some verbs unlike those that have been examined.
_Sprang_, or _sprang up_, expresses action, but it is complete in
itself, does not affect an object; _hastened_ is similar in use; _had
been_ expresses condition, or state of being, and can have no object;
_had sufficed_ means _had been sufficient_, and from its meaning
cannot have an object.

Such verbs are called intransitive (not crossing over). Hence

[Sidenote: _Definition._]

205. An intransitive verb is one which is complete in itself, or
which is completed by other words without requiring an object.