involve
VerbOpen English WordNet
Verb (7)involves, involved, involving
- connect closely and often incriminatingly“This new ruling affects your business”Synonyms: affectregardMore general refer, pertainMore specific implicate
- engage as a participant“Don't involve me in your family affairs!”More general admit, let inMore specific embroil, entangle
- have as a necessary feature“This decision involves many changes”Synonyms: implyMore general have, featureMore specific carry
- 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”Synonyms: necessitateaskpostulateneedrequiretakecall fordemandMore general refer, pertainMore specific take, depend on, deserve, cost, depend, claim, behoove, cry out for, compel, draw +1 moreSimilar claim, take
- contain as a part“Dinner at Joe's always involves at least six courses”More general include
- occupy or engage the interest of“His story completely involved me during the entire afternoon”More general absorb, engross
- make complex or intricate or complicated“The situation was rather involved”
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Verb to include, entail, engage in
- Spanish
- involucrar
- French
- impliquer
- German
- einbeziehen
- Italian
- coinvolgere
- Portuguese
- envolver
- Turkish
- içermek
- Russian
- вовле́чь vovléčʹ
- Polish
- angażować
- Greek
- εμπλέκω empléko
- Portuguese (PT)
- envolver
1 more language
- Finnish
- sotkea
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: 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.— John Milton
2. To envelop completely; to surround; to cover; to hide; to involve in darkness or obscurity.
And leave a singèd bottom all involved With stench and smoke.— John Milton
3. To complicate or make intricate, as in grammatical structure. “Involved discourses.” John 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.— John Milton
The contrary necessarily involves a contradiction.— John Tilllotson
5. To take in; to gather in; to mingle confusedly; to blend or merge. rare
The gathering number, as it moves along, Involves a vast involuntary throng.— Alexander Pope
Earth with hell To mingle and involve.— John 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 Walter Scott
8. Mathematics 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.
Synonyms: To imply; include; implicate; complicate; entangle; embarrass; overwhelm. — 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.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54