interject

English

WOTD – 6 January 2009

Etymology

From Latin interiectus, perfect passive participle of intericiō (place between).

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /ɪn.təˈdʒɛkt/
  • (US) IPA(key): /ɪn.tɚˈdʒɛkt/
  • (file)
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛkt

Verb

interject (third-person singular simple present interjects, present participle interjecting, simple past and past participle interjected)

  1. (transitive) To insert something between other things.
  2. (transitive) To say as an interruption or aside.
    • 1791, James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, London: Charles Dilly, Volume I, pp. 474-475,
      He roared with prodigious violence against George the Second. When he ceased, Moody interjected, in an Irish tone, and with a comick look, “Ah! poor George the Second.”
    • 1848, Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Chapter 24,
      ‘Please, sir, Richard says one of the horses has got a very bad cold, and he thinks, sir, if you could make it convenient to go the day after to-morrow, instead of to-morrow, he could physic it to-day, so as—’
      ‘Confound his impudence!’ interjected the master.
    • 1934, Olaf Stapledon, “East is West” in Sam Moskowitz (ed.), Far Future Calling: Uncollected Science Fiction and Fantasies of Olaf Stapledon, 1979,
      As I listened I interjected an occasional sentence of Japanese translation for our guests.
    • 2000, Julian Barnes, “The Hardest Test: Drugs and the Tour de France” in The New Yorker, 21 August, 2000,
      Virenque, in a panicky mishearing, replied, “Me a dealer? No, I am not a dealer.” [] Whereupon Virenque’s lawyer interjected, “No, Richard, the judge said leader. It’s not an offense to be a leader.”
  3. (intransitive) To interpose oneself; to intervene.

Synonyms

Translations

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