3.121 form of compound verbs

Many compound verbs consist of a noun plus a verb.

• It may soon become economically attractive to mass-produce hepatitis vaccines.

Others consist of an adjective plus a verb.

• Somebody had short-changed him.

3.122

A few compound verbs consist of words which seem strange because we do not normally use them as single words on their own, for example 'pooh-pooh' and 'shilly-shally'.

• Sally had pooh-poohed the idea of three good meals a day.
• Their policy was to hesitate, to shilly-shally, to temporise.

Other compound verbs look strange because they have been borrowed from foreign languages, for example 'ad-lib' and 'kow-tow'.

• They ad-libbed so much that the writers despaired of them.
• He resents having to kow-tow to anyone or anything.