Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Transitive
1.
Having the power of making a transit, or passage.
[R.]
Bacon.
2.
Effected by transference of signification.
By far the greater part of the
transitive
or derivative applications of words depend on casual and unaccountable caprices of the feelings or the fancy. Stewart.
3.
(Gram.)
Passing over to an object; expressing an action which is not limited to the agent or subject, but which requires an object to complete the sense;
– as, a
. transitive
verb, for example, he holds
the bookTran′si-tive-ly
, adv.
Tran′si-tive-ness
, Noun.
Webster 1828 Edition
Transitive
TRANS'ITIVE
,Adj.
1.
In grammar, a transitive verb is one which is or may be followed by an object; a verb expressing an action which passes from the agent to an object, from the subject which does, to the object on which it is done. Thus, 'Cicero wrote letters to Atticus.' In this sentence,the act of writing, performed by Cicero, the agent, terminates on letters, the object. All verbs not passive, may be arranged in two classes, transitive and intransitive. In English, this division is correct and complete.