Adjacent Words

Involve definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

INVOLVE, v.t. involv'. [L. involvo; in and volvo, to roll, Eng. to wallow.]
1. To envelop; to cover with surrounding matter; as, to involve one in smoke or dust.
2. To envelop in any thing which exists on all sides; as, to involve in darkness or obscurity.
3. To imply; to comprise. To be and not to be at the same time, involves a contradiction.
4. To entwist; to join; to connect.
He knows his end with mine involved.
5. To take in; to catch; to conjoin.
The gathering number, as it moves along,
Involves a vast involuntary throng.
6. To entangle. Let not our enemy involve the nation in war, nor our imprudence involve us in difficulty.
7. To plunge; to overwhelm. Extravagance often involves men in debt and distress.
8. To inwrap; to infold; to complicate or make intricate.
Some involved their snaky folds.
Florid, witty, involved discourses.
9. To blend; to mingle confusedly.
10. In algebra, to raise a quantity from the root to any assigned power; as a quantity involved to the third or fourth power.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: connect closely and often incriminatingly; "This new ruling affects your business" [syn: involve, affect, regard]
2: engage as a participant; "Don't involve me in your family affairs!"
3: have as a necessary feature; "This decision involves many changes" [syn: imply, involve]
4: require as useful, just, or proper; "It takes nerve to do what she did"; "success usually requires hard work"; "This job asks a lot of patience and skill"; "This position demands a lot of personal sacrifice"; "This dinner calls for a spectacular dessert"; "This intervention does not postulate a patient's consent" [syn: necessitate, ask, postulate, need, require, take, involve, call for, demand] [ant: eliminate, obviate, rid of]
5: contain as a part; "Dinner at Joe's always involves at least six courses"
6: occupy or engage the interest of; "His story completely involved me during the entire afternoon"
7: make complex or intricate or complicated; "The situation was rather involved"

Merriam Webster's

transitive verb (involved; involving) Etymology: Middle English, to roll up, wrap, from Latin involvere, from in- + volvere to roll — more at voluble Date: 14th century 1. archaic to enfold or envelop so as to encumber 2. a. to engage as a participant <workers involved in building a house> b. to oblige to take part <right of Congress to involve the nation in war> c. to occupy (as oneself) absorbingly; especially to commit (as oneself) emotionally <was involved with a married man> 3. to surround as if with a wrapping ; envelop 4. a. archaic to wind, coil, or wreathe about b. to relate closely ; connect 5. a. to have within or as part of itself ; include b. to require as a necessary accompaniment ; entail c. affect III <the cancer involved the lymph nodes> Synonyms: see include • involvement noun • involver noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. 1 (often foll. by in) cause (a person or thing) to participate, or share the experience or effect (in a situation, activity, etc.). 2 imply, entail, make necessary. 3 (foll. by in) implicate (a person in a charge, crime, etc.). 4 include or affect in its operations. 5 (as involved adj.) a (often foll. by in) concerned or interested. b complicated in thought or form. Etymology: ME f. L involvere involut- (as IN-(2), volvere roll)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Involve In*volve", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Involved; p. pr. & vb. n. Involving.] [L. involvere, involutum, to roll about, wrap up; pref. in- in + volvere to roll: cf. OF. involver. See Voluble, and cf. Involute.] 1. To roll or fold up; to wind round; to entwine. Some of serpent kind . . . involved Their snaky folds. --Milton. 2. To envelop completely; to surround; to cover; to hide; to involve in darkness or obscurity. And leave a sing[`e]d bottom all involved With stench and smoke. --Milton. 3. To complicate or make intricate, as in grammatical structure. ``Involved discourses.'' --Locke. 4. To connect with something as a natural or logical consequence or effect; to include necessarily; to imply. He knows His end with mine involved. --Milton. The contrary necessarily involves a contradiction. --Tillotson. 5. To take in; to gather in; to mingle confusedly; to blend or merge. [R.] The gathering number, as it moves along, Involves a vast involuntary throng. --Pope. Earth with hell To mingle and involve. --Milton. 6. To envelop, infold, entangle, or embarrass; as, to involve a person in debt or misery. 7. To engage thoroughly; to occupy, employ, or absorb. ``Involved in a deep study.'' --Sir W. Scott. 8. (Math.) To raise to any assigned power; to multiply, as a quantity, into itself a given number of times; as, a quantity involved to the third or fourth power. Syn: To imply; include; implicate; complicate; entangle; embarrass; overwhelm. Usage: To Involve, Imply. Imply is opposed to express, or set forth; thus, an implied engagement is one fairly to be understood from the words used or the circumstances of the case, though not set forth in form. Involve goes beyond the mere interpretation of things into their necessary relations; and hence, if one thing involves another, it so contains it that the two must go together by an indissoluble connection. War, for example, involves wide spread misery and death; the premises of a syllogism involve the conclusion.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(involves, involving, involved) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. If a situation or activity involves something, that thing is a necessary part or consequence of it. Running a kitchen involves a great deal of discipline and speed... Nicky's job as a public relations director involves spending quite a lot of time with other people. = entail VERB: V n/-ing, V n/-ing 2. If a situation or activity involves someone, they are taking part in it. If there was a cover-up, it involved people at the very highest levels of government. VERB: V n 3. If you say that someone involves themselves in something, you mean that they take part in it, often in a way that is unnecessary or unwanted. I seem to have involved myself in something I don't understand. VERB: V pron-refl in n 4. If you involve someone else in something, you get them to take part in it. Noel and I do everything together, he involves me in everything... VERB: V n in n/-ing 5. If one thing involves you in another thing, especially something unpleasant or inconvenient, the first thing causes you to do or deal with the second. A late booking may involve you in extra cost... VERB: V n in n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. 1. Envelop, inwrap, wrap, cover. 2. Include (as a consequence), imply, comprise, embrace, contain, lead to. 3. Entangle, implicate. 4. Complicate, make intricate. 5. Join, conjoin, connect, unite, mingle, blend. 6. Twine, intwine, intertwine, interweave, interlace, inweave, intertwist, twist together.

Moby Thesaurus

absorb, absorb the attention, adorn, affect, affect the interest, allegorize, allude to, answer to, appertain to, apply to, approve, argue, arrest, assail, associate with, assume, attack, attest, attract, ball up, be indicative of, be significant of, be symptomatic of, bear on, bear upon, belong to, bespeak, betoken, breathe, bring, bring to mind, burden, call for, catch, catch up, catch up in, censure, characterize, charm, close, compass, compass about, complicate, comprehend, comprise, concern, confound, confuse, connect, connect with, connote, contain, convolute, correspond to, count in, cover, cramp, criminate, cripple, cry out against, cry out on, cry shame upon, cumber, deal with, decorate, demonstrate, denominate, denote, differentiate, disclose, display, draw in, elaborate, embarrass, embay, embellish, embody, embosom, embrace, embrangle, embroider, embroil, enchant, enclasp, enclose, encompass, encumber, enfold, engage, engage the attention, engage the mind, engage the thoughts, engross, engross the mind, engross the thoughts, enmesh, enrich, ensnarl, entail, entangle, enthrall, entoil, entrammel, entrap, entwine, envelop, environ, enwrap, evidence, evince, excite, excite interest, exercise, exhibit, express, fascinate, festoon, fetter, flourish, foul up, furnish evidence, gild, give evidence, give indication of, give token, go around, go round, go to show, grab, grip, hamper, hamstring, handicap, have, have connection with, highlight, hint, hobble, hold, hold spellbound, hold the interest, hypnotize, identify, illustrate, immerse, impede, implicate, imply, import, impugn, include, incorporate, incriminate, inculpate, indicate, infer, insinuate, interest, intimate, invest, invite, involve in, involve the interest, knot, lame, lap, lead to, liaise with, lime, link with, load with ornament, louse up, lumber, manifest, mark, mean, mean to say, mesmerize, mess up, mire, mix up, monopolize, muck up, muddle, necessitate, net, note, number among, obsess, occupy, occupy the attention, ornament, overcharge, overlay, overload, perplex, pertain to, pique, point indirectly to, point to, preoccupy, press down, presume, presuppose, provoke, ramify, ravel, refer to, regard, relate to, require, respect, reveal, saddle with, screw up, set forth, shackle, show, show signs of, signalize, signify, snarl, snarl up, speak for itself, speak volumes, spellbind, stand for, stimulate, subsume, suck into, suggest, suppose, surround, symptomatize, symptomize, take, take for granted, take in, take up, tangle, tantalize, tell, tend to show, testify, tickle, tie in with, titillate, toil, touch, touch upon, trammel, treat of, trick out, varnish, weigh down, wrap