evolve

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin ēvolvō (“unroll, unfold”), from ē- (“out of”) (short form of ex) + volvō (“roll”).

verb

1. (transitive)
   1. To move (something) in regular procession through a system.
   2. To change or transform (something).
      What began as a few lines of code has now evolved into a million-line behemoth.
   3. To cause (something) to come into being or develop.
      You will remove the pig, place it in the car, and drive it to my house in Wiltshire. That is the plan I have evolved. 1939, P. G. Wodehouse, Uncle Fred in the Springtime
      […]I ask you, rather, to evolve a suitable plan with due deliberation and report it to me."¹⁴ 2005, Donald Keene, quoting Emperor Kōmei, Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His world, 1852–1912, New York: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, chapter 9, page 78
   4. (biology)
      1. Of a population: to acquire or develop (a trait) in the process of biological evolution.
         Oxygen levels on Earth skyrocketed 2.4 billion years ago, when cyanobacteria evolved photosynthesis: the ability to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and waste oxygen using solar energy. 2013 September-October, Katie L. Burke, “In the News”, in American Scientist, archived from the original on 2013-09-03
         How long ago did birds evolve beaks?
      2. (chiefly passive) To cause (a population, a species, etc.) to change genetic composition over successive generations through the process of evolution.
         A hundred thousand years from now, will Homo sapiens have evolved into beings unrecognizable to their ancestors?
         The ice age was nearly two million years old by the time the woolly mammoth evolved. 2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: A Natural History, page 204
   5. (chemistry) To give off (a gas such as carbon dioxide or oxygen) during a chemical reaction.
      to evolve odours
   6. (obsolete) To wind or unwind (something).
      And come, my Muſe! that lov'ſt the ſylvan ſhade, / Evolve the mazes, and the miſt diſpel; / Tranſlate the ſong; convince my doubting maid / No ſolemn Derviſe can explain ſo vvell— […] [1795], James Woodhouse, “[To William Shenstone, Esq. in His Sickness.] Elegy VI. To a Lady, on the Language of the Birds.”, in William Shenstone, The Poetical Works of William Shenstone.[…], Cooke’s edition, London: […] C. Cooke,[…], →OCLC, lines 9–12, page 54
2. (intransitive)
   1. To move in regular procession through a system.
      Not by any power evolved from man's own resources, but by a power which descended from above. 1870, John Shairp, Culture and Religion
   2. To change, to transform.
   3. (biology) Of a trait; to develop within a population through biological evolution.
      How long ago did beaks evolve?