Which type of verb is correctly identified in the sentence "The boat has docked."?

In the sentence "The boat has docked," the verb "has docked" is identified as intransitive because it does not require a direct object to complete its meaning. Intransitive verbs express an action that does not pass onto a receiver, meaning they do not act upon anything. Here, "docked" describes what the subject, "the boat," is doing, but there is no object receiving that action.

This is in contrast to transitive verbs, which would need an object to complete the thought (e.g., "He ate an apple"). Linking verbs, however, serve to connect the subject with a subject complement that describes or identifies it (e.g., "She is a teacher"). Action verbs, while they can be intransitive or transitive, do not specifically denote whether an object is required or not. In this case, since "docked" stands alone without an object, it clearly fits the definition of an intransitive verb.