evolve

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To move (something) in regular procession through a system.

   • The animal soul sooner expands and evolves it self to its full orb and extent than the humane Soul
2. 2

   To change or transform (something).

   • Over several years the author evolved the story originally drafted as a novella into a real epic.
3. 3

   To cause (something) to come into being or develop.

   • 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.
   • The interpreter has spent a whole lot of time working the music before the performance, trying to evolve the most accurate translation possible.
   • […]I ask you, rather, to evolve a suitable plan with due deliberation and report it to me."¹⁴
4. ›+ 7 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Of a population

      Of a population: to acquire or develop (a trait) in the process of biological evolution.

      • How long ago did birds evolve beaks?
      • 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.
   2. 5

      To cause (a population, a species, etc.) to change genetic composition over successive…

      To cause (a population, a species, etc.) to change genetic composition over successive generations through the process of evolution.

      • A hundred thousand years from now, will Homo sapiens have evolved into beings unrecognizable to their ancestors?
      • The ice age was nearly two million years old by the time the woolly mammoth evolved.
   3. 6

      To give off (a gas such as carbon dioxide or oxygen) during a chemical reaction.

      • to evolve odours
   4. 7

      To wind or unwind (something).

      • 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— […]
   5. 8

      To move in regular procession through a system.

      • [T]he principles which Art involves, Science alone evolves.
      • Not by any power evolved from man's own resources, but by a power which descended from above.
   6. 9

      To change, to transform.

      • What began as a few lines of code has now evolved into a million-line behemoth.
      • An aide of Shah told Reuters that Shah had an early penchant for poetry that evolved into an affinity for rap music.
   7. 10

      Of a trait

      Of a trait; to develop within a population through biological evolution.

      • How long ago did beaks evolve?

The neighborhood

• neighborevolute
• neighborevolution
• neighborevolutive
• neighborevolvable
• neighborevolvement
• neighborevolver