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Evolved vs Devolved - What's the difference?

evolved | devolved |

As verbs the difference between evolved and devolved

is that evolved is past tense of evolve while devolved is past tense of devolve.

evolved

English

Verb

(head)
  • (evolve)

    • Anagrams

    *

    evolve

    English

    Verb

  • To move in regular procession through a system.
  • * Sir M. Hale
    • The animal soul sooner evolves itself to its full orb and extent than the human soul.
  • * (William Whewell) (1794-1866)
    • The principles which art involves, science alone evolves .
  • * (w) (1819-1885)
    • Not by any power evolved from man's own resources, but by a power which descended from above.
  • To change, transform, develop.
  • * 1939 , , Uncle Fred in the Springtime
    • You will remove the pig, place it in the car, and drive it to my house in Wiltshire. That is the plan I have evolved.
  • (biology) Of a population, to change genetic composition over successive generations through the process of evolution.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=September-October, author= Katie L. Burke
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= In the News , passage=Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy.}}
  • (chemistry) To give off (gas, such as oxygen or carbon dioxide during a reaction).

    • Related terms

    * evolute * evolution * evolutional * evolutionary * evolutionally * evolutionarily * evolutionism * evolutionist * evolutionistic * evolutionistically * evolutive * evolutiveness * evolutivity * evolvable * evolvability * evolvement * evolver ----

    devolved

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (devolve)
    • ----

    devolve

    English

    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.

    Related terms

    * devolution

    Anagrams

    * ----