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This may be a generic question. I wanted to see if a verb had some transitive
use and thought a japanese-japanese dictionary would be more detailed than
jisho.org, but I can't seem to find any mention to 他 or 自 neither in weblio.jp
nor in goo.ne.jp, which are always my top 2 search results. Is this kind of
information too specific for dictionaries?
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question
verbs transitivity dictionary
Where is verb transitivity listed in japanese dictionaries?
### Your question

> Where is verb transitivity listed in japanese dictionaries?

It depends.

Not your ideal answer, I'm sure, but it's true.

### Some examples

My preferred monolingual Japanese dictionary is the 日本国語大辞典【にほんこくごだいじてん】
(NKD), available in an abridged edition via [Kotobank](https://kotobank.jp/).
Due to a site "upgrade" a few years ago, actually _finding_ the desired entry
in the NKD can be a bit tricky. But once you do, there's a great deal of
useful detail.

[Here's a set of sample NKD
entries](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%A3%9F%E3%83%BB%E5%96%B0-2030835). This
includes the verb くう, くらう, くわせる, くらわす, くわす, くえる, くらわせる, and noun くい.

Let's look in more detail at the verb くう, the topmost one on that page.

> **く・う くふ【食・喰】**  
>  〘他ワ五（ハ四）〙

Here's the top two lines.

  * く・う 
    * Tells us that the kanji spelling covers the く portion, and the う is [okurigana](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okurigana).
  * くふ 
    * This is the [historical kana spelling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography) ([歴史的【れきしてき】仮名遣【かなづか】い](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%AD%B4%E5%8F%B2%E7%9A%84%E4%BB%AE%E5%90%8D%E9%81%A3)), used before the various spelling reforms of the late 19th and early-mid 20th centuries. The historical spellings can sometimes give us better insight into word derivations and connections between words.
  * 他ワ五 
    * This tells us that this is a **他【た】** 動詞【どうし】 or "transitive verb", that this conjugates based on the ワ set of kana (such as negative form く **わ** ない), and that this is a 五段【ごだん】 or "quintigrade" verb, with all five vowels appearing in the conjugated verb stems: くう・くい・くわ-・くえ・くおう).
  * （ハ四） 
    * This is more historical information about Classical Japanese (and deliberately archaic / hyper-formal forms). We learn that, in the historical kana spellings, the verb conjugates based on the ハ set of kana, and that this is a 四段【よだん】 or "quadrigrade" verb, with four vowels appearing in the conjugated verb stems: くふ・くひ・くは-・くへ.  
_**Note:** Classical Japanese has no "-o" verb endings, because the
suppositional / volitional in modern Japanese is actually a contraction of
older form_ -amu. _So for modern くう, the volitional is くおう, and for Classical
くふ, the volitional is くはむ. The suppositional / volitional suffix in Classical
is -む, and this attaches to the so-called 未然形【みぜんけい】 or
"[irrealis](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irrealis_mood)" verb stem
[basically, "the action of the verb hasn't happened yet"]._  
_In terms of phonological development, the _-amu_ ending was originally
pronounced as //amu//. This changed to //ãu// with a nasal "a" sound, a bit
like English "ow" with a stuffy nose. This naturally evolved into //ɔː// like
in English "aw", and then finally to the long //oː// like "oh" that we see in
modern Japanese._

Unfortunately, not all dictionaries provide this level of detail. The
corresponding Digital Daijisen entry
[here](https://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%A3%9F%E3%81%86-482263) doesn't specify
transitivity at all:

> **く・う〔くふ〕【食う／×喰う】**  
>  ［動ワ五（ハ四）］

We are told that this is a **動【どう】** 詞【し】 (verb), but not whether it's a
他動詞【たどうし】 (transitive verb) or a 自動詞【じどうし】 (intransitive verb).

To find out, we can dig around further. The very first definition line in the
Daijisen gives us this:

> **１** 食物をかんでのみ込む。食べる。「飯を―・う」

That bit at the end is a usage example. Dictionary formatting often replaces
the headword with a hyphen, so we know we can expand 「飯を―・う」 into 「飯を **食【く】**
・う」. And since we have the basic grammatical structure of `[NOUN]`を`[VERB]`,
we can tell from both the definition and this usage example that 食【く】う is a
transitive verb.

_**Note:** We need the definition as well, since it is possible to have
`[NOUN]`を`[VERB]` with intransitive verbs of motion, where the NOUN describes
a place or time through which the action of the verb is happening, such as in
道【みち】を歩【ある】く ("to walk [up, down, along] the street")._

### Conclusion

> Where is verb transitivity listed in japanese dictionaries?

When a dictionary specifies this information clearly, it should be right at
the start of the entry, as we see above in the sample from the NKD.

If a dictionary doesn't specify this, try looking at the definitions and usage
examples.
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