evolve
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɪˈvɒlv/
ipa: /ɪˈvɑlv/
ipa: /-ˈvɔlv/
ipa: /iˈ-/
rhymes: -ɒlv
Forms: form: evolves
form: evolving
form: evolved
form: evolved
Etymology: Borrowed from Latin ēvolvō (“unroll, unfold”), from ē- (“out of”) (short form of ex) + volvō (“roll”).
Senses: examples: text: The animal soul sooner expands and evolves it self to its full orb and extent than the humane Soul
ref: 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:
glosses: To move (something) in regular procession through a system.
examples: text: Over several years the author evolved the story originally drafted as a novella into a real epic.
glosses: To change or transform (something).
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1939, P. G. Wodehouse, Uncle Fred in the Springtime:
text: The interpreter has spent a whole lot of time working the music before the performance, trying to evolve the most accurate translation possible.
ref: 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:
text: […]I ask you, rather, to evolve a suitable plan with due deliberation and report it to me."¹⁴
ref: 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:
glosses: To cause (something) to come into being or develop.
examples: text: How long ago did birds evolve beaks?
text: 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.
ref: 2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, archived from the original on 03 Sep 2013:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: Of a population: to acquire or develop (a trait) in the process of biological evolution.
examples: text: A hundred thousand years from now, will Homo sapiens have evolved into beings unrecognizable to their ancestors?
text: 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.
ref: 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:
text: The ice age was nearly two million years old by the time the woolly mammoth evolved.
ref: 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 204:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
qualifier: chiefly passive voice
glosses: To cause (a population, a species, etc.) to change genetic composition over successive generations through the process of evolution.
examples: text: to evolve odours
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To give off (a gas such as carbon dioxide or oxygen) during a chemical reaction.
examples: text: 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— […]
ref: [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:
glosses: To wind or unwind (something).
examples: text: [T]he principles which Art involves, Science alone evolves.
ref: 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:
text: Not by any power evolved from man's own resources, but by a power which descended from above.
ref: 1870, John Shairp, Culture and Religion:
glosses: To move in regular procession through a system.
examples: text: What began as a few lines of code has now evolved into a million-line behemoth.
glosses: To change, to transform.
examples: text: How long ago did beaks evolve?
topics: biology
natural-sciences
glosses: Of a trait; to develop within a population through biological evolution.
Derived terms: coevolve
co-evolve
evolvability
evolvingly
microevolve
nonevolving
photoevolve
reevolve
Related terms: evolute
evolution
evolutive
evolvable
evolvement
evolver