Quote:

I've never seen or heard anyone but military (or former military) folks use "OBE." Especially as a verb!






Never been in the military.
Federal government yes, military, no.

"OBE" being short for Overtaken By Events can correctly only be used as a verb since it is a Verb Phrase.


In the generative grammar framework, the verb phrase is a phrase headed by a verb. A verb phrase may be constructed from a single verb; often, however, the verb phrase will consist of various combinations of the main verb and any auxiliary verbs, plus optional specifiers, complements, and adjuncts.