Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To develop or achieve gradually.
  • intransitive verb To work (something) out; devise.
  • intransitive verb Biology To develop (a characteristic) by evolutionary processes.
  • intransitive verb To give off; emit.
  • intransitive verb To undergo gradual change; develop.
  • intransitive verb Biology To arise or transform through evolutionary processes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To unfold; open and expand.
  • To unfold or develop by a process of natural, consecutive, or logical growth from, or as if from, a germ, latent state, or plan.
  • To unfold by elaboration; work out; bring forth or make manifest by action of any kind: as, to evolve a drama from an anecdote; to evolve the truth from a mass of confused evidence; to evolve bad odors by stirring a muck-heap.
  • To open or disclose itself; become developed.
  • In chem., geol., etc., to give off or make manifest by separation from a mixture or a compound: most commonly used of a gas or vapor: as hydrochloric-acid gas evolved from a mixture of common salt and sulphuric acid.
  • In mathematics, to extract (roots).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To unfold or unroll; to open and expand; to disentangle and exhibit clearly and satisfactorily; to develop; to derive; to educe.
  • transitive verb To throw out; to emit.
  • intransitive verb To become open, disclosed, or developed; to pass through a process of evolution.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To move in regular procession through a system.
  • verb To develop.
  • verb biology Of a population, to change genetic composition over successive generations through the process of evolution.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb work out
  • verb gain through experience
  • verb undergo development or evolution

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin ēvolvere, to unroll : ē-, ex-, ex- + volvere, to roll; see wel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin ēvolvere, present active infinitive of ēvolvō ("unroll, unfold"), from ē ("out of"), short form of ex, + volvō ("roll").

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