intervene

Universal Words verb 1 [V] ~ (in sth) to become involved in a situation in order to improve or help it: The President intervened personally in the crisis. * She might have been killed if the neighbours hadn't intervened. 2 to interrupt sb when they are speaking in order to say sth: [Vspeech] 'But,' she intervened, 'what about the others?' [also V] 3 [V] to happen in a way that delays sth or prevents it from happening: They were planning to get married and then the war intervened. 4 [V] (formal) to exist between two events or places: I saw nothing of her during the years that intervened. intervention noun [U,C] ~ (in sth): calls for government intervention to save the steel industry * armed / military intervention * People resented his repeated interventions in the debate.