Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Intricate; complex.
- adjective Botany Having the margins rolled inward.
- adjective Zoology Having whorls that enclose and obscure earlier whorls. Used of a gastropod shell.
- intransitive verb To curl inward.
- noun The curve traced by a point as if it were on a taut string being unwound from another curve.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Rolled up; wrapped up.
- Involved; confusedly mingled.
- noun That which is involved.
- noun In geometry, the curve traced by any point of a flexible and inextensible string when the latter is unwrapped, under tension, from a given curve; or, in other words, the locus of a point in a right line which rolls, without sliding, over a given curve.
- Noting a form of tooth-profile, used in gearing, traced by a point at the end of a tangent as it is unwrapped from a base-circle.
- To return to a normal condition.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Geom.) A curve traced by the end of a string wound upon another curve, or unwound from it; -- called also
evolvent . Seeevolute . - adjective (Bot.) Rolled inward from the edges; -- said of leaves in vernation, or of the petals of flowers in æstivation.
- adjective Turned inward at the margin, as the exterior lip of the Cyprea.
- adjective Rolled inward spirally.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective formal
Difficult tounderstand ;complicated . - adjective botany Having the
edges rolled with theadaxial side outward. - adjective biology, of shells Having a
complex pattern ofcoils . - adjective biology Turned
inward at themargin , like theexterior lip of the Cyprea. - adjective biology Rolled inward spirally.
- verb To
roll orcurl inwards . - noun geometry A
curve that cuts alltangents of another curve atright angles ;traced by a point on astring thatunwinds from a curved object.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective (of some shells) closely coiled so that the axis is obscured
- adjective especially of petals or leaves in bud; having margins rolled inward
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Without thinking, outréblack squirrels inhabit upper Michigan and petrify the involute world.
Black Squirrel Poem 2010
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Oh, and a nuanced take on bringing involute cunning to a ruthlessness contest.
Making Light: Rowling's being sued for plagiarism again 2010
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You offer a variety points of view, acknowledge your own contradictions, resolve them, involute and qualify and complicate and undermine those resolutions, and end up with an ultimate determination so considered, nuanced, and precise, with so much allowance for exceptions, that the only possible response short of writing a parallel novella-length essay of my own (like I did last time) is to quibble.
The Sacred Domain Hal Duncan 2006
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But the common law was involute, overformalized, and fiction-ridden not because it was changeless, but precisely because it was constantly changing.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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But the common law was involute, overformalized, and fiction-ridden not because it was changeless, but precisely because it was constantly changing.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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But the common law was involute, overformalized, and fiction-ridden not because it was changeless, but precisely because it was constantly changing.
A History of American Law Lawrence M. Friedman 1985
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The possible moves being not only manifold but involute, the chances of such oversights are multiplied; and in nine cases out of ten it is the more concentrative rather than the more acute player who conquers.
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“But why should they?” persisted Cowperwood, charmed and interested by the involute character of her logic.
The Titan 2004
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There are compromises of the spirit too elusive and subtle to be traced in all their involute windings.
The Titan 2004
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The term "free threshing" is also applied to the involute glumes of some West African guinea sorghums.
jwjarvis commented on the word involute
shrink
November 18, 2010
jwjarvis commented on the word involute
The thymus involutes with age and is virtually undetectable
in postpubertal humans
November 18, 2010