3.125 transitive or intransitive

A third group of compound verbs may be used in intransitive as well as transitive clauses.

• He chain-smoked cheap cigars.
• The husband is left to chain-smoke in the waiting-room.
• I tried to ad-lib a joke.
• The commentator decided to ad-lib.

Here is a list of compound verbs which can be transitive or intransitive:

• ad-lib, bottle-feed, breast-feed, bulk-buy, chain-smoke, criss-cross, deep-fry, double-check, double-park, mass-produce, short-circuit, sight-read, spring-clean, stir-fry, tie-dye