Sample sentences for INTERVENE

1 —as in:
intervened in the war

Definition

get involved — typically to help in a difficult situation

They do not like America to intervene in the Middle East.

intervene = get involved

Other Uses (with this meaning)

They are opposed to Russian intervention in their country.

intervention = involvement — typically without welcome

(editor's note: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.)

Why did the U.S. not intervene earlier in WW II?
We would have finished last week, but the weather intervened.
I'd admit that I didn't know that much about fashion, but Marlee and I both agreed that someone should have intervened on her behalf.
Kiera Cass -- The Selection

intervened = gotten involved (to help)

The words of these songs were composed without any human intervention whatever on an instrument known as a versificator.
George Orwell -- 1984

intervention = involvement

(editor's note: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.)

But this epiphany occurred only after the intervention of time and misfortune, when my fathers self-satisfied existence had begun to crumble beneath him.
Jon Krakauer -- Into the Wild

intervention = involvement

(editor's note: The suffix "-tion", converts a verb into a noun that denotes the action or result of the verb. Typically, there is a slight change in the ending of the root verb, as in action, education, and observation.)

"Have some more," she insists, until Father intervenes and upholds my right to refuse a dish I don't like.
Anne Frank -- The Diary of a Young Girl

intervenes = gets involved (to help)

I hastily intervene and give him a cigarette.
Erich Maria Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front

intervene = get involved (to assist in a difficult situation)

Ordinarily he should have been a magnet for me, the center of all the excitement and influences in the class. Ordinarily this would have been so—if the summer, the gypsy days, had not intervened.
John Knowles -- A Separate Peace

intervened = come (gotten involved)

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

2 —as in:
in the intervening years

Definition

passage of time — especially between two events

Decades intervened before the story was written.

intervened = passed

I knew her as a child and then saw her again in college. She had grown into a beautiful woman during the intervening years.

intervening = passing

Dictionary / pronunciation — Google^®Dictionary list — Onelook.com^®

Less commonly:

Much more rarely, intervene can mean: {definitionDetail}

in various senses, including:

to verbally interrupt -- as in "Not now!' she intervened."
to be physically between -- as in: "You can't walk from one hill to the other because an impassable river intervenes."

{/definitionDetail}