involve

Etymology

PIE word *h₁én From Late Middle English involven (“to cloud; to encumber; to envelop, surround; to ponder (something); (reflexive) to concern (oneself) with something”) [and other forms], borrowed from Old French involver, envoudre, or from its etymon Latin involvere, the present active infinitive of Latin involvō (“to roll to or upon something; to roll about; to coil or curl up; to cover; to envelop, wrap up; to overwhelm”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + volvō (“to roll; to tumble”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welH- (“to turn; to wind (turn coils)”)).

verb

1. To have (something) as a component or a related part; to comprise, to include.
   My job involves forecasting economic trends.
   Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes' cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes. 2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4, New Haven, Conn.: Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2017-05-29
   1. (specifically) To include (something) as a logical or natural, or necessary component, or consequence or effect of something else; to entail, to imply.
2. To cause or engage (someone or something) to become connected or implicated, or to participate, in some activity or situation.
   By involving herself in her local community, Mary met lots of people and also helped make it a nicer place to live.
   How can we involve the audience more during the show?
   I don’t want to involve him in my personal affairs.
   We are always trying to involve new technology in our products.
   There is no manner of doubt that upon an indictment for a conspiracy, be the conspiracy to do one act, or another act, or be the quality of the act done, when it is done, what it may, that as far as you can connect persons acting together towards one purpose, which purpose constitutes the crime, you may undoubtedly involve them together by evidence, but that is not the question here. 29 October 1794, Thomas Erskine (counsel for the defendant), “The Trial of Thomas Hardy for High Treason, before the Court Holden under a Special Commission of Oyer and Terminer, at the Sessions House in the Old Bailey, […]”, in T[homas] B[ayly] Howell, Thomas Jones Howell, compilers, A Complete Collection of State Trials and Proceedings for High Treason and Other Crimes and Misdemeanors from the Earliest Period to the Year 1783,[…], volume XXIV, London: […] T[homas] C[urson] Hansard,[…]; for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; […], published 1818, →OCLC, columns 436–437
   1. (specifically, also reflexive, chiefly passive) Chiefly followed by with: to engage (someone or oneself) in an emotional or sexual relationship.
3. (figurative) To entangle, intertwine, or mingle (something with one or more other things, or several things together); especially, to entangle (someone or something) in a confusing or troublesome situation.
   to involve a person in debt or misery
   The materials being thus combined, the next process was to involve them, so as to obtain the number exposed to the risk of mortality in each year of age, in order to ascertain the proportion of deaths; […] 1843, Cha[rle]s Ansell et al., “Introduction to the Tables”, in Tables Exhibiting the Law of Mortality, Deduced from the Combined Experience of Seventeen Life Assurance Offices,[…], London: […] J. King,[…], →OCLC, page vii
4. (archaic)
   1. To cover or envelop (something) completely; to hide, to surround.
      to involve in darkness or obscurity
      O God, who involvedst in the consuming fire the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, and gavest salvation to Lot Thy servant and his household: […] show us in this test of our littleness the virtue of the same Holy Spirit, and by the heat of this Fire separate the believing and unbelieving, […] 1862 July, “Art. VII.—The Publications of the Surtees Society. London, Durham, and Edinburgh. [book review]”, in The Christian Remembrancer. A Quarterly Review, volume XLIV, number CXVII (New Series), London: John and Charles Mozley,[…]; New York, N.Y.: Willmer & Rogers, page 193
   2. To form (something) into a coil or spiral, or into folds; to entwine, to fold up, to roll, to wind round.
5. (archaic or obsolete)
   1. To make (something) intricate; to complicate.
      The distribution and configuration of the land, together with the influence of the winds, greatly involve the problem of the tides, and render it one of the most difficult in the whole range of physics. 1848, Thomas Milner, “Tides and Oceanic Highways”, in The Gallery of Nature: A Pictorial and Descriptive Tour Through Creation,[…], new edition, London: W[illia]m S. Orr & Co.,[…], →OCLC, page 355
      The sewerage and drainage of the town of Gibraltar, being upon a very defective system, greatly involve the sanitary welfare of the troops, many of the barrack buildings being immediately within the influences of such evil. 1859, T. G. Logan, “To the Director-General of the Army Medical Department”, in Army Medical Department. Statistical, Sanitary and Medical Reports for the year 1859.[…], London: […] Harrison and Sons, for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, published 1861, →OCLC, page 169
      Before leaving this branch of our subject, it may be well to point out that a young man who possesses the power of explaining himself clearly, without stammering and stumbling, and involving his sentences, always has a great advantage on his side. 25 October 1878, “Engineers in the Mercantile Marine. No. III.”, in The Engineer, volume XLVI, London: Office for publication and advertisements,[…], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 294, column 1
   2. (mathematics) To multiply (a number) by itself a given number of times; to raise to any assigned power.
      a quantity involved to the third or fourth power
      Subtract the power from the given quantity, and divide the first term of the remainder, by the first term of the root involved to the next inferiour power, and multiplied by the index of the given power; the quotient will be the next term of the root. 1814, Jermiah Day, “Evolution of Compound Quantities”, in An Introduction to Algebra, Being the First Part of a Course of Mathematics,[…], New Haven, Conn.: Howe & Deforest; Oliver Steele, printer, →OCLC, article 484, page 242