intervene

Verb

intervene (third-person singular simple present intervenes, present participle intervening, simple past and past participle intervened)

1. (intransitive) To become involved in a situation, so as to alter or prevent an action.
   • The police had to be called to intervene in the fight.
   • Nature film-makers are discouraged from intervening in the events they are attempting to capture on film.2018 November 19, Aamna Mohdin, “Top film-makers back penguin intervention on Attenborough show”, in The Guardian

   Synonyms:

   interfere, step in

2. (intransitive) To occur, fall, or come between, points of time, or events.
   • An instant intervened between the flash and the report.
   • […] it is plain, that shaking off a Power, which Force, and not Right, hath set over any one, though it hath the Name of Rebellion; yet is no Offence before God, but that which he allows and countenances, though even Promises and Covenants, when obtain’d by force, have intervened.1689 December (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Chapter 16”, in Two Treatises of Government: […], London: […] Awnsham Churchill, […], →OCLC, book II, page 417

   Synonyms:

   elapse

3. (intransitive) To occur or act as an obstacle or delay.
   • Nothing intervened to prevent the undertaking.
   • The weather intervened before the contest could get under way.
4. (ambitransitive) To say (something) in the middle of a conversation or discussion between other people, or to respond to a situation involving other people.
   • Young Scarfe stared, astounded. “You haven’t met before,” Mrs. Gould intervened. “Mr. Decoud—Mr. Scarfe.”1904, Joseph Conrad, Nostromo, Part 2, Chapter 4
   • “That sounds suspiciously like bigotry to me,” intervened Maitland, sweetening his impertinence with a dimpled smile.1970, J. G. Farrell, Troubles, New York: Knopf, published 1971, Part 2, p. 409

   Synonyms:

   interrupt

5. (ambitransitive) To come between, or to be between, persons or things.
   • The Mediterranean intervenes between Europe and Africa.
   • How defective the Art of Navigation was in elder Times, when they Sailed by the observation of the Stars, is easie to be imagin’d: For in dark weather, when their Pleiades, Helice, and Cynosura were hidden from them by the intervening Clouds, the Mariner was at a loss for his Guide, and exposed to...1668, Joseph Glanvill, Plus Ultra, or, The Progress and Advancement of Knowledge since the Days of Aristotle, London: James Collins, Chapter 11, p. 79
6. In a suit to which one has not been made a party, to put forward a defense of one's interest in the subject matter.
   • an application for leave (i.e. permission) to intervene