1 definition found
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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.