[Grammar] What part of speech this might be.

[The apprentice]

Dear teachers and members:


In the two following sentences below I would like to know if both verbs were being properly used.

a) She smoked her saving completely.

Meaning that she spent all her saving smoking.

b) He drank his wife out of the house.

Meaning that his drinking habit drove his wife out of the house.

How is a verb called when (is) acting as in both sentences above?


Regards

 

[probus]

I love b). It is pithy, emphatic and natural in a creative way. A) would be almost as appealing if "saving" were replaced by "savings". Verbs used this way are probably best called metaphorical.

 

[lotus888]

For the first sentence, try:

She smoked her savings away.



--lotus

 

[The apprentice]

Thank you for replying probus.


Even though those verbs above are being used in a metaphorical way, are they grammatically correct?

 

[emsr2d2]

Both sentences are grammatically correct (if "savings" is used).

As far as your title goes, it should either be a question: "What part of speech might this be?" or a full statement: "I would like to know what part of speech this might be". What you have written is a fragment. That said, it wasn't a good title anyway. Titles should include some or all of the words being queried. A good title for this post might have been "She smoked her saving completely".