Grammar Bite: Prepositions for Foreclose

A reader once asked which of the following sentences is correct:

Her home was foreclosed on.

Her home was foreclosed.

Foreclose is a verb that can be either transitive (taking an object) or intransitive (not taking an object). Either way, it means “to take away the borrower’s right to complete the loan (the mortgage) and to take back the property the loan was paying for”:

Transitive: “A bill was filed in the United States Circuit Court yesterday by the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Com...