Recent Examples on the WebChenier sang and played with soulful verve and impressive instrumental fluidity throughout, while Landreth’s ebullient slide-guitar solos approached a level of musical ecstasy.—George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 11 May 2024 The show, produced with A24, faithfully traces the plot of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, centering the voice of the narrator, known simply as The Captain, played with cheeky verve by Australian actor Hoa Xuande, who is of Vietnamese descent.—Laura Zornosa, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2024 The characters are stereotypes living their lives stereotypically; there’s no verve to the filmmaking.—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 3 Apr. 2024 There’s a certain verve to Bartlett’s style, which is bold even if the plot turns make no sense and the character development is nil.—Katie Walsh, Los Angeles Times, 27 Jan. 2024 Others were dismayed at Pacino’s apparent failure to inject a bit of verve and suspense into the proceedings (as if everyone in the world didn’t know Oppenheimer was about to win, anyway).—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 11 Mar. 2024 Heilbrunn’s book opens with verve, then becomes a touch slapdash as the narrative drives toward the present.—Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 1 Mar. 2024 With verve, Domingo digs into the experience of a Black gay man in the racist and homophobic 1960s.—Leanne Italie, Quartz, 2 Mar. 2024 Richie Grainge herself has evolved her stylistic approach from an ostentatious Los Angeleno verve into a look that’s more low-key highbrow.—Nick Remsen, CNN, 13 Feb. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'verve.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
French, from Middle French, caprice, from Old French, word, gossip, from Vulgar Latin *verva, from Latin verba, plural of verbum word — more at word
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