Phrasal verbs represent a practically limitless group of verbs that can be combined with short adverbs or prepositions to produce new meanings. Here are some examples: Phrasal verbs are ubiquitous in ...

or sentence—with either an intended literal or figurative meaning but whose constituent word or words have a meaning or sense different from their dictionary definitions. On the other hand, a phrasal ...

Soon, “hark back,” “hearken back” and “harken back” would become full-fledged phrasal verbs — word combinations that have a different meaning than the root verb they’re based on.

This combination of verb and adverb is always known as a phrasal verb. Note that it is not always possible to guess the meaning of phrasal verbs (or prepositional verbs for that matter ...