evolutionizev.
/ˌiːvəˈl(j)uːʃn̩ʌɪz/, /ˌiːvəˈl(j)uːʃənʌɪz/, /ˌɛvəˈl(j)uːʃn̩ʌɪz/, /ˌɛvəˈl(j)uːʃənʌɪz/, U.S. /ˌɛvəˈluʃəˌnaɪz/ 1. Chiefly U.S. To evolve.
a. transitive. To produce or change by a process of evolution; to subject to gradual (esp. progressive) development.In general (not biological) contexts, sometimes contrasted with revolutionize.
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the world > action or operation > prosperity > advancement or progress > [verb (transitive)] > cause to advance or develop
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1878 Indiana (Pa.) Progress 25 Apr. He has evolutionized Darwin back into a clam.
1911 H. Radau Sumerian Hymns & Prayers i. iii. 9 According to the earliest Sumerian conception, the ‘heaven and earth’ (and not the chaos) were the source out of which everything was evolutionized or begotten.
1932 Nation (N.Y.) 2 Mar. 259 Ten thousand such clubs would in ten years revolutionize (or, better, evolutionize) the country's public thinking and give us a new America.
1981 Compar. Educ. 17 243 The foreign policy of the United States..no longer has illusions about ‘evolutionising the revolution’.
1999 Herald-Dispatch (Huntington, W. Va.) (Nexis) 29 May a8 Our schools teach children they are nothing but glorified apes evolutionized out of some primordial soup.
b. intransitive. To undergo evolution, to be gradually transformed. Frequently with into.
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1889 Salem (Ohio) Daily News 10 May 3/4 She inherits all the peculiar notions of her ancestors, and appears to have evolutionized into more advanced forms of belief.
1890 Scribner's Mag. July 131/2 Monkeys may have evolutionized into Herbert Spencers; but have the females of any species ever yet evolutionized into males?
1928 Jrnl. Compar. Legislation & Internat. Law 10 256 Each time a new makeshift is applied a propaganda sets in abroad pretending that Bolshevism is evolutionizing towards a workable proposition of government.
1959 W. F. Buckley & J. Dos Passos Up from Liberalism 87 The human impulse to be tactful evolutionizes into a tendency to refuse to acknowledge facts.
1998 Orange County (Calif.) Reg. (Nexis) 4 June 4 Royce concluded that with America's help, Africa will continue to evolutionize and integrate into the world economy.
2. transitive. To treat (a topic or field of study) in accordance with evolutionary theory or principles, or from an evolutionary or evolutionistic point of view. Also (occasionally) intransitive.
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1880 Bot. Gaz. 5 46 It is contended..that these galls, by an evolution of their protoplasm, eventually give birth to animal life. This seems to ‘out-evolutionize’ the most radical evolutionist.]
1880 Mind 5 332 Haeckel..has been persistently labouring at the great task of radically evolutionising the science of life.
1899 R. Mackintosh From Comte to Benjamin Kidd x. 104 As Prussia Prussianises its Polish dominions, as Russia desires to Russianise Finland, so Mr. Stephen evolutionises his ethics.
1927 Jrnl. Amer. Oriental Soc. 47 71 Professor Carter has a fondness for evolutionizing and correlating things as being derived one from another.
1987 Current Anthropol. 28 274/1 With the general tendency to ‘historicize’ or ‘evolutionize’ the sciences..a new interest is emerging in historical , evolutionary, and general dynamic views of social and cultural phenomena.
1997 N.Y. Rev. Bks. 17 July 39/1 Jared Diamond's book sets out to evolutionize sex.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2008; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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