develop

English Online Dictionary. What means develop‎? What does develop mean?

English

Alternative forms

• develope (archaic)

Etymology

Borrowed from French développer, from Middle French desveloper, from Old French desveloper, from des- + voloper, veloper, vloper (“to wrap, wrap up”) (compare Italian sviluppare, Old Italian alternative form goluppare (“to wrap”)) from Vulgar Latin *vloppō, *wloppō (“to wrap”) ultimately from Proto-Germanic *wrappaną, *wlappaną (“to wrap, roll up, turn, wind”), from Proto-Indo-European *werb- (“to turn, bend”) [1]. Akin to Middle English wlappen (“to wrap, fold”) (Modern English lap (“to wrap, involve, fold”)), Middle English wrappen (“to wrap”), Middle Dutch lappen (“to wrap up, embrace”), dialectal Danish vravle (“to wind, twist”), Middle Low German wrempen (“to wrinkle, scrunch, distort”), Old English wearp (“warp”). The word acquired its modern meaning from the 17th-century belief that an egg contains the animal in miniature and matures by growing larger and shedding its envelopes.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /dɪˈvɛl.əp/
• (India) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛʋ.ləp/, /dɛˈʋɛ.ləp/
• Hyphenation: de‧ve‧lop
• Rhymes: -ɛləp

Verb

develop (third-person singular simple present develops, present participle developing, simple past and past participle developed or (archaic, rare) developt)

1. (transitive, now rare) To discover, find out; to uncover.
2. (intransitive) To change with a specific direction, progress.

3. (transitive, intransitive) To progress through a sequence of stages.
   • 1868-1869, Robert Owen, Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of Vertebrates

     All insects […] acquire the jointed legs before the wings are fully developed.

4. (transitive) To advance; to further; to promote the growth of.
5. (transitive) To create.

6. (transitive) To bring out images latent in photographic film.

7. (transitive) To acquire something usually over a period of time.

8. (chess, transitive) To place one's pieces actively.

9. (snooker, pool) To cause a ball to become more open and available to be played on later. Usually by moving it away from the cushion, or by opening a pack.
10. (mathematics) To change the form of (an algebraic expression, etc.) by executing certain indicated operations without changing the value.

Usage notes

• Objects: plan, software, program, product, story, idea.

Derived terms

Related terms

• envelop
• envelope

Translations