Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition

Involve

In-volve′

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Involved
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Involving
.]
[L.
involvere
,
involutum
, to roll about, wrap up; pref.
in-
in +
volvere
to roll: cf. OF.
involver
. See
Voluble
, and cf.
Involute
.]
1.
To roll or fold up; to wind round; to entwine.
Some of serpent kind . . .
involved

Their snaky folds.
Milton.
2.
To envelop completely; to surround; to cover; to hide; to involve in darkness or obscurity.
And leave a singèd bottom all
involved

With stench and smoke.
Milton.
3.
To complicate or make intricate, as in grammatical structure.
“Involved discourses.”
Locke.
4.
To connect with something as a natural or logical consequence or effect; to include necessarily; to imply.
He knows
His end with mine
involved
.
Milton.
The contrary necessarily
involves
a contradiction.
Tillotson.
5.
To take in; to gather in; to mingle confusedly; to blend or merge.
[R.]
The gathering number, as it moves along,
Involves
a vast involuntary throng.
Pope.
Earth with hell
To mingle and
involve
.
Milton.
6.
To envelop, infold, entangle, or embarrass;
as, to
involve
a person in debt or misery
.
7.
To engage thoroughly; to occupy, employ, or absorb.
“Involved in a deep study.”
Sir W. Scott.
Syn. – To imply; include; implicate; complicate; entangle; embarrass; overwhelm.
– To
Involve
,
Imply
. Imply is opposed to express, or set forth; thus, an implied engagement is one fairly to be understood from the words used or the circumstances of the case, though not set forth in form. Involve goes beyond the mere interpretation of things into their necessary relations; and hence, if one thing involves another, it so contains it that the two must go together by an indissoluble connection. War, for example, involves wide spread misery and death; the premises of a syllogism involve the conclusion.

Webster 1828 Edition

Involve

INVOLVE

,
Verb.
T.
involv'. [L. involvo; in and volvo, to roll, Eng. to wallow.]
1.
To envelop; to cover with surrounding matter; as, to involve one in smoke or dust.
2.
To envelop in any thing which exists on all sides; as, to involve in darkness or obscurity.
3.
To imply; to comprise. To be and not to be at the same time, involves a contradiction.
4.
To entwist; to join; to connect.
He knows his end with mine involved.
5.
To take in; to catch; to conjoin.
The gathering number, as it moves along,
Involves a vast involuntary throng.
6.
To entangle. Let not our enemy involve the nation in war, nor our imprudence involve us in difficulty.
7.
To plunge; to overwhelm. Extravagance often involves men in debt and distress.
8.
To inwrap; to infold; to complicate or make intricate.
Some involved their snaky folds.
Florid, witty, involved discourses.
9.
To blend; to mingle confusedly.
10. In algebra, to raise a quantity from the root to any assigned power; as a quantity involved to the third or fourth power.

Definition 2024

involve

involve

English

Alternative forms

Verb

involve ‎(third-person singular simple present involves, present participle involving, simple past and past participle involved)

  1. (archaic) To roll or fold up; to wind round; to entwine.
    • John Milton
      Some of serpent kind […] involved / Their snaky folds.
  2. (archaic) To envelop completely; to surround; to cover; to hide
    to involve in darkness or obscurity
    • John Milton
      And leave a singèd bottom all involved / With stench and smoke.
  3. To complicate or make intricate, as in grammatical structure.
    • John Locke
      Involved discourses.
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess:
      The face which emerged was not reassuring. […]. He was not a mongol but there was a deficiency of a sort there, and it was not made more pretty by a latter-day hair cut which involved eccentrically long elf-locks and oiled black curls.
  4. (archaic) To connect with something as a natural or logical consequence or effect; to include necessarily; to imply.
    • John Milton
      He knows / His end with mine involved.
    • Tillotson
      The contrary necessarily involves a contradiction.
    • 2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:
      Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.
  5. To take in; to gather in; to mingle confusedly; to blend or merge.
    • Alexander Pope
      The gathering number, as it moves along, / Involves a vast involuntary throng.
    • John Milton
      Earth with **** / To mingle and involve.
  6. To envelop, enfold, entangle.
    to involve a person in debt or misery‎
    He's involved in the crime.
  7. To engage (someone) to participate in a task
    How can we involve the audience more during the show?
    By getting involved in her local community, Mary met lots of people and also helped make it a nicer place to live.
  8. (mathematics) To raise to any assigned power; to multiply, as a quantity, into itself a given number of times.
    a quantity involved to the third or fourth power‎

Synonyms

See also

Translations

References

  • involve in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Latin

Verb

involve

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of involvō

Etymology

From Latin involvo.

Pronunciation

  • (UK) IPA(key): /in'vɒlv/

Similar Results