involve
[in-volv]
- to include as a necessary circumstance, condition, or consequence; imply; entail: This job involves long hours and hard work.
- to engage or employ.
- to affect, as something within the scope of operation.
- to include, contain, or comprehend within itself or its scope.
- to bring into an intricate or complicated form or condition.
- to bring into difficulties (usually followed by with): a plot to involve one nation in a war with another.
- to cause to be troublesomely associated or concerned, as in something embarrassing or unfavorable: Don't involve me in your quarrel!
- to combine inextricably (usually followed by with).
- to implicate, as in guilt or crime, or in any matter or affair.
- to engage the interests or emotions or commitment of: to become involved in the disarmament movement; to become involved with another woman.
- to preoccupy or absorb fully (usually used passively or reflexively): You are much too involved with the problem to see it clearly.
- to envelop or enfold, as if with a wrapping.
- to swallow up, engulf, or overwhelm.
- Archaic.to roll, surround, or shroud, as in a wrapping.
- to roll up on itself; wind spirally; coil; wreathe.
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Origin of involve
Synonyms
See more synonyms for involve on Thesaurus.com1. necessitate, require, demand. 6, 7, 9. Involve, entangle, implicate imply getting a person connected or bound up with something from which it is difficult to extricate himself or herself. To involve is to bring more or less deeply into something, especially of a complicated, embarrassing, or troublesome nature: to involve someone in debt. To entangle (usually passive or reflexive) is to involve so deeply in a tangle as to confuse and make helpless: to entangle oneself in a mass of contradictory statements. To implicate is to connect a person with something discreditable or wrong: implicated in a plot.
Antonyms
7. extricate.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for involving
Contemporary Examples
Moraca pointed to another form of return fraud, involving gift cards.
Even extreme beauty — and even the best of bodies and most involving pictures of them — can become repetitive.
There will be a meeting at the White House tomorrow involving over 40 countries that works on that.
In fact, Lauer even ended up with a character arc of his own, involving his reluctance to utter the word “sharknado.”
The most common aura is visual, involving light sensitivity or blurred vision.
Historical Examples
I should think so—involving the Ambassador of a foreign power!
The Secret AgentJoseph Conrad
Tell her, to-night, what you know of her danger as involving her child and her father.
A Tale of Two CitiesCharles Dickens
But no, Robbie was better away; he could only clear him of this guilt by involving his father.
The Shadow of a CrimeHall Caine
It seemed to be of parting, and the hope of reunion, involving one named Irene.
The Duke Of Chimney ButteG. W. Ogden
To keep the ship going he had been involving himself deeper every year.
End of the TetherJoseph Conrad
involve
- to include or contain as a necessary partthe task involves hard work
- to have an effect on; spread tothe investigation involved many innocent people
- (often passive; usually foll by in or with) to concern or associate significantlymany people were involved in the crime
- (often passive) to make complicated; tanglethe situation was further involved by her disappearance
- rare, often poetic to wrap or surround
- maths obsolete to raise to a specified power
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Word Origin
C14: from Latin involvere to roll in, surround, from in- ² + volvere to roll
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for involving
involve
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with involving
involve
see get involved with.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.