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devolve

[dih-volv]

Example Sentences Origin

verb (used with object)

to transfer or delegate (a duty, responsibility, etc.) to or upon another; pass on.

Obsolete. to cause to roll downward.

verb (used without object)

to be transferred or passed on from one to another: The responsibility devolved on me.

Archaic. to roll or flow downward.

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Devolve is one of our favorite verbs.

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to chew (food) slowly and thoroughly.

to run away hurriedly; flee.

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Origin:
1375–1425; late Middle English devolven < Latin dēvolvere to roll down, equivalent to dē- de- + volvere to roll

Related forms

de·volve·ment, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Link To devolve

Example Sentences

Consider among the theater's vagaries how a show can devolve into a shadow of.

The problem here is that internal hires can often devolve into what amounts to as a veneered form of cronyism.

Woit argues, science would devolve into little more than medieval disputations about angels and heads of pins.

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Consider among the theater's vagaries how a show can devolve into a shadow of.

The problem here is that internal hires can often devolve into what amounts to as a veneered form of cronyism.

Woit argues, science would devolve into little more than medieval disputations about angels and heads of pins.

Jakarta has already begun to devolve significant political and economic decision making to the provinces.

At the same time, the coalition has begun to devolve power over the public services and make them more responsive:.

Homeless vampires live beneath city streets and devolve into something far worse than hungry hobos when they can't find food.

The constant worry is that direct talks will devolve into recriminations and new violence.

They devolve too little power to local staff and rarely promote non-Japanese to top management.

But there's danger in allowing the netwar to devolve into a battle of civilizations or faiths.

They insist that any such process would devolve into partisan backbiting from which this country could never recover.

Most reformers want to devolve power, but for a government that likes to control things this is hard to accept.

Williams admits there's a danger this video movement could devolve into cheap commercialism.

Vaccaro sometimes allows his writing to devolve into boilerplate sports-writing clichés:.

Most people would rather devolve this sort of responsibility to the authorities.

And it underscored how quickly such situations can devolve into sniping in today's highly polarized politics of security.

However its leaders show an alarming reluctance to devolve control of anything much to the regions.

They tend to devolve into wild yet perfunctory gore.

I've come to trust him a little on trade because his more protectionist talking points devolve the fastest.

Lately, an increasing number of the discussions devolve into name-calling and bickering.

Lacking consensus the safer approach should be to devolve government to the lowest level at which it can be effective.

Characters devolve into ideas that have somehow found human hosts.

MS, resist that urge to devolve into horrible cynicism.

Yemen's rebellion is far from over, and many fear that it could still devolve into civil war.

There is a correlation between built-in female-culling mindset in any cultural system which have devolve to excess materialism.

There was little point in their grand experiment if they let it devolve into sullen chaos right from the inception.

The argument for legalizing pot evolves as other arguments devolve.

Economic policies of the political right devolve to demographic trends favoring the left.

They might, after all, have foreseen that the argument would devolve to this level.

Please consider that solutions which begin with voluntary austerity devolve rapidly to enforced privation.

More honest clarity is welcome…and clarity and comment need not devolve into atheism.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

devolve (dɪˈvɒlv)

—vb (foll by on, upon, to, etc)
1.	to pass or cause to pass to a successor or substitute, as duties, power, etc
2.	(intr; foll by on or upon) law (of an estate, etc) to pass to another by operation of law, esp on intestacy or bankruptcy
3.	(intr; foll by on or upon) to depend (on): your argument devolves on how you interpret this clause
4.	archaic to roll down or cause to roll down

[C15: from Latin dēvolvere to roll down, fall into, from de- + volvere to roll]

de'volvement

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

devolve

c.1420, from L. devolvere "to roll down," from de- + volvere "to roll" (see vulva).

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Matching Quote

"One of the duties which devolve upon women in the present interesting crisis, is to prepare themselves for more extensive usefulness, by making use of those religious and literary privileges and advantages that are within their reach, if they will only stretch out their hands and possess them."

-Sarah M. Grimke

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