In*volve" (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Involved (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Involving.] [L. involvere, involutum, to roll about, wrap up; pref. in- in + volvere to roll: cf. OF. involver. See Voluble, and cf. Involute.]
1. To roll or fold up; to wind round; to entwine.
Some of serpent kind . . . involved
Their snaky folds.
Milton.
2. To envelop completely; to surround; to cover; to hide; to involve in darkness or obscurity.
And leave a singed bottom all involved
With stench and smoke.
Milton.
3. To complicate or make intricate, as in grammatical structure. "Involved discourses."
Locke.
4. To connect with something as a natural or logical consequence or effect; to include necessarily; to imply.
He knows
His end with mine involved.
Milton.
The contrary necessarily involves a contradiction.
Tillotson.
5. To take in; to gather in; to mingle confusedly; to blend or merge. [R.]
The gathering number, as it moves along,
Involves a vast involuntary throng.
Pope.
Earth with hell
To mingle and involve.
Milton.
6. To envelop, infold, entangle, or embarrass; as, to involve a person in debt or misery.
7. To engage thoroughly; to occupy, employ, or absorb. "Involved in a deep study."
Sir W. Scott.
8. Math. To raise to any assigned power; to multiply, as a quantity, into itself a given number of times; as, a quantity involved to the third or fourth power.
Syn. -- To imply; include; implicate; complicate; entangle; embarrass; overwhelm. -- To Involve, Imply. Imply is opposed to express, or set forth; thus, an implied engagement is one fairly to be understood from the words used or the circumstances of the case, though not set forth in form. Involve goes beyond the mere interpretation of things into their necessary relations; and hence, if one thing involves another, it so contains it that the two must go together by an indissoluble connection. War, for example, involves wide spread misery and death; the premises of a syllogism involve the conclusion.
© Webster 1913. | 
