Verb

(en-verb)

(obsolete) To roll (something) down; to unroll.

* 1744 , (Mark Akenside), The Pleasures of the Imagination , II:

every headlong stream / Devolves its winding waters to the main.

* 1830 , , Character :

He spake of virtue […] And with […] a lack-lustre dead-blue eye, Devolved his rounded periods.

To be inherited by someone else; to pass down (upon) the next person in a succession, especially through failure or loss of an earlier holder.

* 1932 , (Duff Cooper), Talleyrand , Folio Society 2010, p. 4:

an accident […] rendered him permanently lame, and therefore unfitted him, in the opinion of his parents, to inherit his father's many titles, which, it was then arranged, should devolve upon his younger brother.

To delegate (a responsibility, duty etc.) (on) or (upon) someone.

* 1704 , (Joseph Addison), Remarks on Several Parts of Italy :

They devolved their whole authority into the hands of the council of sixty.

* 1756 , (Edmund Burke), A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful :

An artful man became popular, the people had power in their hands, and they devolved a considerable share of their power upon their favourite […].

To fall as a duty or responsibility (on) or (upon) someone.

* , Episode 16:

For the nonce he was rather nonplussed but inasmuch as the duty plainly devolved upon him to take some measures on the subject he pondered suitable ways and means during which Stephen repeatedly yawned.

To degenerate; to break down.

A discussion about politics may devolve into a shouting match.

Verb

(en verb)

To take possession of as a right (especially in Biblical translations) .

To receive (property or a title etc), by legal succession or bequest after the previous owner's death.

* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)

, chapter=5 citation , passage=‘It's rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited . Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it's an amusing new fashion.’}}

(biology) To receive a characteristic from one's ancestors by genetic transmission.

To derive from people or conditions previously in force.

To come into an inheritance.

(computing, programming, transitive) To derive (existing functionality) from a superclass.

(computing, programming, transitive) To derive a new class from (a superclass).

* 2006 , Daniel Solis, Illustrated C# 2005

For example, the following two code segments, from different assemblies, show how easy it is to inherit a class from another assembly.

(obsolete) To put in possession of.

(Shakespeare)