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  1. devolve love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To pass on or delegate to another: The senator devolved the duties of office upon a group of aides.
  2. v. Archaic To cause to roll onward or downward.
  3. v. To be passed on or transferred to another: The burden of proof devolved upon the defendant. The estate devolved to an unlikely heir.
  4. v. To degenerate or deteriorate gradually: After several hours the discussion had devolved into a shouting match.
  5. v. Archaic To roll onward or downward.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To roll downward or onward.
  2. To transfer, as from one person to another; turn over; transmit.
  3. To roll down; come or arrive by rolling down or onward.
  4. To be transferred or transmitted; pass from one to another; fall by succession or transference.
  5. To degenerate.

Wiktionary

  1. v. transitive to delegate something to someone else
  2. v. intransitive to be inherited by someone; to come into the hands of
  3. v. intransitive to slowly degrade

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To roll onward or downward; to pass on.
  2. v. To transfer from one person to another; to deliver over; to hand down; -- generally with upon, sometimes with to or into.
  3. v. To pass by transmission or succession; to be handed over or down; -- generally with on or upon, sometimes with to or into.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. grow worse
  2. v. be inherited by
  3. v. pass on or delegate to another

Etymologies

  1. From Latin dēvolvō ("roll or tumble off or down"), from dē + volvō ("roll"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English devolven, to transfer, from Old French devolver, to confer, ascribe, from Latin dēvolvere, to roll down, fall to : dē-, de- + volvere, to roll; see wel-2 in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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synonyms (3)

Words with the same meaning

  1. pass
  1. descend
  1. transfer

hypernyms (4)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. assign
  1. designate
  1. depute
  1. delegate

same context (4)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. duarchy
  1. monkery
  1. working
  1. aboutyour

rhymes (7)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. absolve
  1. dissolve
  1. evolve
  1. involve
  1. resolve
  1. revolve
  1. solve

reverse dictionary (14)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. devolv
  2. disinherit
  1. devolute
  2. lapse
  1. succeed
  2. bring
  1. chamberlain
  2. entail
  1. impropriate
  2. inure
  1. revolve
  2. sergeant
  1. settle
  2. vest

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‘devolve’ has been looked up 1907 times, loved by 5 people, added to 31 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 14.