involve
Americanverb (used with object)
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to include as a necessary circumstance, condition, or consequence; imply; entail.
This job involves long hours and hard work.
- Synonyms:
- demand, require, necessitate
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to engage or employ.
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to affect, as something within the scope of operation.
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to include, contain, or comprehend within itself or its scope.
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to bring into an intricate or complicated form or condition.
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to bring into difficulties (usually followed bywith ).
The investigation discovered a plot to involve one nation in a war with another.
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to cause to be troublesomely associated or concerned, as in something embarrassing or unfavorable.
Don't involve me in your quarrel!
- Antonyms:
- extricate
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to combine inextricably (usually followed bywith ).
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to implicate, as in guilt or crime, or in any matter or affair.
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to engage the interests or emotions or commitment of.
The professor involved many students in the disarmament movement.
Her husband became involved with another woman.
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to preoccupy or absorb fully (usually used passively or reflexively).
You are much too involved with the problem to see it clearly.
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to envelop or enfold, as if with a wrapping.
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to swallow up, engulf, or overwhelm.
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Archaic. to roll, surround, or shroud, as in a wrapping.
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to roll up on itself; wind spirally; coil; wreathe.
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verb
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to include or contain as a necessary part
the task involves hard work
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to have an effect on; spread to
the investigation involved many innocent people
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(often passive; usually foll by in or with) to concern or associate significantly
many people were involved in the crime
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(often passive) to make complicated; tangle
the situation was further involved by her disappearance
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rare to wrap or surround
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obsolete maths to raise to a specified power
Related Words
Involve, entangle, implicate imply getting a person connected or bound up with something from which it is difficult to be freed. To involve is to bring more or less deeply into something, especially of a complicated, embarrassing, or troublesome nature: I'd rather not to involve someone else in my debt. To entangle (usually passive or reflexive) is to involve so deeply in a tangle as to confuse and make helpless: The candidate tended to entangle himself in a mass of contradictory statements. To implicate is to connect a person with something discreditable or wrong: She was implicated in a plot to assassinate the governor.
Other Word Forms
- interinvolve verb (used with object)
- involvement noun
- involver noun
- overinvolve verb (used with object)
- preinvolve verb (used with object)
- reinvolve verb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of involve
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English involven, from Latin involvere “to roll in or up,” equivalent to in- in- 2 + volvere “to roll”; revolve
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That said, there are plenty of reasons — none involving any kind of partisan chicanery — that explain why California elections seems to drag on and vote totals shift as ballots are steadily counted.
From Los Angeles Times
The court found there was "negligent conduct involving a conflict of interest."
From Barron's
There are eight other siblings involved, but she believes she doesn’t need to answer to anyone else.
From Barron's
There are eight other siblings involved, but she believes she doesn’t need to answer to anyone else.
From MarketWatch
As BrainHQ involves scores of different exercises, he directed me to the particular one, called Double Decision, that he says was developed from the original speed-training exercise used in the study.
From MarketWatch
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
