DEVOLVE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Devolve

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/dɪvˈɑlv/ Listen

verb

Devolve v. t. (past & past part. devolved; pres. part. devolving)

To roll onward or downward; to pass on. "Every headlong stream Devolves its winding waters to the main." "Devolved his rounded periods."

To transfer from one person to another; to deliver over; to hand down; generally with upon, sometimes with to or into. "They devolved a considerable share of their power upon their favorite." "They devolved their whole authority into the hands of the council of sixty."

Devolve v. i. To pass by transmission or succession; to be handed over or down; generally with on or upon, sometimes with to or into; as, after the general fell, the command devolved upon (or on) the next officer in rank. "His estate... devolved to Lord Somerville."

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Etymology of 'Devolve'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Devolve" Quotes from Famous Books

... ourselves on his hospitality, I don't quite like to descend on him all at once with the whole strength of our party. It will be better for one of us to break the ice, and as you are the best-looking and most hypocritically urbane, when you choose, I think we could not do better than devolve the ...

— The Eagle Cliff • R.M. Ballantyne

... that this administration has been in office has been too brief to permit preparation of a detailed and comprehensive program of recommended action to cover all phases of the responsibilities that devolve upon our country's new leaders. Such a program will be filled out in the weeks ahead as, after appropriate study, I shall submit additional recommendations for your consideration. Today can provide only a ...

— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... question of the abolition. Offers of money were made to Mirabeau from the same quarter, if he would totally abandon his motion. An attempt was made to establish a colonial committee, consisting of such planters as were members of the National Assembly; upon whom it should devolve to consider and report upon all matters relating to the Colonies, before they could be determined there. Books were circulated in abundance in opposition to mine. Resort was again had to the public papers, as the means of raising a hue and cry against the ...

— The History of the Rise, Progress and Accomplishment of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade by the British Parliament (1808) • Thomas Clarkson

... was a very gallant character, indeed, one to be relied upon for the accomplishment of great slaughter in an emergency, but who was singularly unlucky in his love affair, in the outcome of which Grant became deeply interested, too deeply, as the event proved. Upon the country boy of eleven or twelve devolve always, in a new country, certain responsibilities not unconnected with the great fuel question,—the keeping of the wood-box full,—and these duties, in the absorption of the novel, the youth neglected shamefully. A casual ...

— A Man and a Woman • Stanley Waterloo

... Tom had seen the major, who was an old sportsman, kill several elephants, so that he conceived himself to be quite able for that duty if it should devolve upon him. He was walking his horse quietly along a sort of path that skirted a piece of thicket when he heard a tremendous crashing of trees, and looking up saw a troop of fifty or sixty elephants dashing away through a grove of mapani-trees. Tom at once put spurs to his horse, unslung his large-bore ...

— Hunting the Lions • R.M. Ballantyne

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