Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To orbit a central point.
  • intransitive verb To turn on an axis; rotate. synonym: turn.
  • intransitive verb To be arranged as revolving credit.
  • intransitive verb To be centered.
  • intransitive verb To cause to revolve.
  • intransitive verb To ponder or reflect on.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To turn or roll about on an axis; rotate.
  • To move about a center; circle; move in a curved path; follow such a course as to come round again to a former place: as, the planets revolve about the sun.
  • To pass through periodic changes; return or recur at regular intervals; hence, to come around in process of time.
  • To pass to and fro in the mind; be revolved or pondered.
  • To revolve ideas in the mind; dwell, as upon a fixed idea; meditate; ponder.
  • To return; devolve again.
  • To turn or cause to roll round, as upon an axis.
  • To cause to move in a circular course or orbit: as, to revolve the planets in an orrery.
  • To turn over and over in the mind; ponder; meditate on; consider.
  • To turn over the pages of; look through; search.
  • noun A revolution; a radical change in political or social affairs.
  • noun A thought; a purpose or intention.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To cause to turn, as on an axis.
  • transitive verb Hence, to turn over and over in the mind; to reflect repeatedly upon; to consider all aspects of.
  • intransitive verb To turn or roll round on, or as on, an axis, like a wheel; to rotate, -- which is the more specific word in this sense.
  • intransitive verb To move in a curved path round a center.
  • intransitive verb To pass in cycles.
  • intransitive verb rare To return; to pass.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To orbit a central point.
  • verb To turn on an axis.
  • verb intransitive To recur in cycles.
  • verb transitive To ponder on, to reflect repeatedly upon, to consider all aspects of.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cause to move by turning over or in a circular manner of as if on an axis
  • verb turn on or around an axis or a center
  • verb move in an orbit

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English revolven, to change direction, from Old French revolver, to reflect upon, from Latin revolvere, to turn over, roll back, reflect upon : re-, re- + volvere, to roll; see wel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English revolven ("to change direction"), from Old French revolver ("to reflect upon"), from Latin revolvere, present active infinitive of revolvō ("turn over, roll back, reflect upon"), from re- ("back") + volvō ("roll"); see voluble, volve.

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Examples

  • His pitching staff wasn't nearly as good, but Milwaukee's chances of reaching the postseason or winning a title revolve around Fielder, who will reach free agency after the 2011 season.

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed 2010

  • He is still battling himself, and I think the show will completely begin revolve around him in some kind of way … … … ….

    The Tail Section » Season 4 Finale “There’s No Place Like Home, Part 2″ Afterthoughts 2008

  • But the central theme around which all tariffs seem to revolve is the fear of so-called cheap foreign competition, the cheap labour content, entirely ignoring the fact that both in the States and in Canada we have a productivity factor that is unequalled in the rest of the world.

    Let's Free Trade 1953

  • Countries which have won their independence or gone through a nationalist revolution usually change their names, and any country or other unit round which strong feelings revolve is likely to have several names, each of them carrying a different implication.

    Notes on Nationalism 1945

  • Those bodies, in short, revolve in orbits: but there are (or, conformably to the laws of astronomy, there might be) others which, instead of an orbit, describe a trajectory — a course not returning into itself.

    A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive John Stuart Mill 1839

  • The only puns I know in Korean revolve around the fact that they use the same word for “pepper” and “penis,” for “spicy” and “erect,” and for “eat” and “fuck.”

    The Nervous Breakdown 2010

  • "I anticipate that increased trading activity in mainland parcels will absorb any shortfall created by temporary vacancies, and conversion fees, but the implications for LIF in the short term revolve around cash flow.

    World of SL 2008

  • It is obvious that if the stirrer is fixed, and the pail itself made to revolve, that is the same as if the pail were fixed and the stirrer made to revolve.

    Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery A Manual of Cheap and Wholesome Diet A. G. Payne 1867

  • The picture was not the best but the model JD attached is very close to the correct shape but the revolve is the same width from start to finish.

    All Discussion Groups: Message List - root 2010

  • The picture was not the best but the model JD attached is very close to the correct shape but the revolve is the same width from start to finish.

    All Discussion Groups: Message List - root 2010

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