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devolve

UK/dɪˈvɒɫv/US/dɪˈvɑlv/
verbC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,885 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: devolved, devolving, devolves

To devolve is to pass power or duty down to a lower level. Devolve power, devolved administration, the duty devolves on him.

In British politics devolution gave Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland their own legislatures, and what is devolved and what is reserved is the line every argument since has run along. To devolve on somebody also means to fall to them as a duty.

Definitions of devolve

  1. 1verbdevolveTo pass power or duty down to a lower level.C1

    “The government has devolved control of schools to local councils.”

devolve is a passing down.

Where it comes from

  1. Latin

    dēvolvō — roll or tumble off or down

  2. English, today

    devolve

Borrowed from Latin dēvolvō (“roll or tumble off or down”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

devolve in the wild

  • Legislation creating devolved parliaments or assemblies can be repealed or amended by central government in the same way as any statute.

    Devolution

  • Unlike their Scottish counterparts, highlands are played with a smoother, less-jagged articulation, and the dotted rhythms tend to devolve into long passages of triplets.

    Strathspey (dance)

  • In either case, all the powers of the president devolve to the acting president, with the exception of the right to dissolve the Parliament.

    Acting President of Poland

  • The constitution also gives it powers over police and land but successive central governments have refused to devolve these powers to the provinces.

    Eastern Provincial Council

  • Within another two years, Dhaka Anushilan would devolve its aims from the Swadeshi movement to the dedicated aim of political terrorism.

    Dhaka Anushilan Samiti

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the dēvolvō family

devolvedevolution

devolve — used about once every 33,333 pages · #13,885 · point at the bar for the others