evolve
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin ēvolvō (“unroll, unfold”), from ē- (“out of”) (short form of ex) + volvō (“roll”).
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA(key): /ɪˈvɑlv/
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ɪˈvɒlv/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -ɒlv
- Hyphenation: e‧volve
Verb
evolve (third-person singular simple present evolves, present participle evolving, simple past and past participle evolved)
- (transitive)
- To move (something) in regular procession through a system.
- a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: […] William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, […], published 1677, →OCLC:
- The animal soul sooner expands and evolves it self to its full orb and extent than the humane Soul
- To change or transform (something).
- Over several years the author evolved the story originally drafted as a novella into a real epic.
- To cause (something) to come into being or develop.
- 1939, P. G. Wodehouse, Uncle Fred in the Springtime:
- You will remove the pig, place it in the car, and drive it to my house in Wiltshire. That is the plan I have evolved.
- 1979 August 25, Vicki Gabriner, Susan Freundlich, “Bridging the Gaps between Deaf and Hearing Lesbians”, in Gay Community News, volume 7, number 6, page 8:
- The interpreter has spent a whole lot of time working the music before the performance, trying to evolve the most accurate translation possible.
- 2005, Donald Keene, quoting Emperor Kōmei, Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His world, 1852–1912, New York: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, →OCLC, chapter 9, page 78:
- […] I ask you, rather, to evolve a suitable plan with due deliberation and report it to me."14
- (biology)
- Of a population: to acquire or develop (a trait) in the process of biological evolution.
- 2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, archived from the original on 3 September 2013:
- Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy.
- How long ago did birds evolve beaks?
- (chiefly passive voice) To cause (a population, a species, etc.) to change genetic composition over successive generations through the process of evolution.
- A hundred thousand years from now, will Homo sapiens have evolved into beings unrecognizable to their ancestors?
- 1859 November 24, Charles Darwin, “Recapitulation and Conclusion”, in On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 490:
- There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
- 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 204:
- The ice age was nearly two million years old by the time the woolly mammoth evolved.
- Of a population: to acquire or develop (a trait) in the process of biological evolution.
- (chemistry) To give off (a gas such as carbon dioxide or oxygen) during a chemical reaction.
- to evolve odours
- (obsolete) To wind or unwind (something).
- [1795], James Woodhouse, “[To William Shenstone, Esq. in His Sickness.] Elegy VI. To a Lady, on the Language of the Birds.”, in William Shenstone, The Poetical Works of William Shenstone. […], Cooke’s edition, London: […] C. Cooke, […], →OCLC, page 54, lines 9–12:
- And come, my Muſe! that lov'ſt the ſylvan ſhade, / Evolve the mazes, and the miſt diſpel; / Tranſlate the ſong; convince my doubting maid / No ſolemn Derviſe can explain ſo vvell— […]
- To move (something) in regular procession through a system.
- (intransitive)
- To move in regular procession through a system.
- 1840, William Whewell, “Of Art and Science”, in The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded upon Their History. […], volume II, London: John W[illiam] Parker, […]; Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: J. and J. J. Deighton, →OCLC, part II (Of Knowledge), book XI (Of the Construction of Science), paragraph 6, page 275:
- [T]he principles which Art involves, Science alone evolves.
- 1870, John Shairp, Culture and Religion:
- Not by any power evolved from man's own resources, but by a power which descended from above.
- To change, to transform.
- What began as a few lines of code has now evolved into a million-line behemoth.
- (biology) Of a trait; to develop within a population through biological evolution.
- How long ago did beaks evolve?
- To move in regular procession through a system.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
move in regular procession through a system
|
to change, to transform
|
come into being; develop
|
change genetic composition
|
to give off (a gas)
|
Pronunciation
Verb
evolve
Pronunciation
- (Classical Latin) IPA(key): /eːˈu̯ol.u̯e/, [eːˈu̯ɔɫ̪u̯ɛ]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /eˈvol.ve/, [eˈvɔlve]
Verb
ēvolve
Verb
evolve
- inflection of evolver:
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