1Transfer or delegate (power) to a lower level, especially from central government to local or regional administration.

1. 1.1devolve on/upon/tono object (of duties or responsibility) pass to (a body or person at a lower level)
   his duties devolved on a comrade

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The responsibility devolving on man is known, in the phraseology of Islam, as takleef-i-shar'ee or religious obligation, which is laid on every man according to his competence depending on his strength.
   • Although she is still Riverdance's producer, much of the day-to-day responsibilities for managing the shows have been devolved to a management team.
   • One reason why it was not found is one considers the comment that we had breached our duty or our duty had devolved upon us so as to call for us to act some time long before November 1996.
   • I'm not saying that sexual responsibility devolves to women.
   • Or should responsibility only devolve on two or three of them who bought the last rounds?
   • The governor's call for a non-binding referendum means this responsibility will ultimately devolve upon us.
   • Perhaps more to the point, however, Heidegger's secularized meditation on the imminence of death and the responsibilities that devolve to us as a result owe more to the heroic literature of Ernest Juenger.
   • The awesome task of creating a modern, democratic Afghan state - and in the process turning 3,000 years of historical development on its head - devolves on him.
   • Egger were the contract administrators and that duty devolved on Mr Dent.
   • If it doesn't, the obligation devolves upon the member associations and therefore the member associations are free to do so if they have a reasonable prospect of doing so effectively.
   • With the men away from the court for long periods in the army or on official postings, responsibility devolved upon aristocratic women, many of whom personally directed the factions themselves.
   • But at the end of the day, responsibility devolves upon the commander at sea, and Jellicoe had missed the fleeting opportunity to deliver a decisive victory in Trafalgar-fashion.
   • They stressed education so that people would better understand the faith, and the responsibility for education devolved on the home, the church, and the state.
   • But since all are created equally in the image of God, there is a duty that devolves upon the ‘haves’ to give of their substance to the ‘have-nots’ in order to effect justice.
   • A committee or coalition cannot instigate true love; the responsibility for this devolves to substantial human exemplars.
   • As in the other two we find in No.3 that amount of Conscientiousness which will give a desire to fulfil the duties devolving upon her in a trustworthy manner.
   • From here on out, responsibility for my apprenticeship as a feeder devolved to me alone.
   • While credit for the good is claimed by both, accountability for the ills like rampant tree cutting does not devolve on either.
   • Why is it always that responsibilities like this devolve on me?
   • It was agreed at the meeting that control of access to the records was your function as Secretary to the Inquiry, but that ultimately the responsibility would devolve on the Treasury.
2. 1.2devolve intoformal no object Degenerate or be split into.
   the Empire devolved into separate warring states

   Example sentencesExamples

   • Meanwhile, the glimpses we have of the Berlin above show a landscape out of The Triumph of Death, a city devolving into total anomie.
   • The reason many critics see the world devolving into vulgar chaos is that they see a world filled with artifacts, nearly all of them disposable, that have no meaning to them.
   • Williams chokes off every bit of his classic manic energy, which ends up channeling much meaning into every little bit of body language - while never devolving into obvious mannerisms.
   • The reauthorization debate is the domestic policy opportunity of the near future, but it will be a lost opportunity if it devolves into an argument over whether this or that element of the 1996 changes succeeded.
   • If the detectives are of differing abilities it devolves into a situation where one player is deciding the best move for everybody else.
   • Her piece then devolves into a long remembrance of her history, that of a working class girl who became disillusioned with her chosen party because it ceased to care.
   • One detailed concerns that the country is devolving into a ‘narco state’ with about 60 per cent of its income derived from opium.
   • What started off as a nice satire of Big Science and weapons research devolves into an unpleasant story of corruption involving a large cast of unpleasant characters.
   • In the meantime, the mainstream press is devolving into a combination of conventional entertainment and political theater, all of it remote from the reality that most Americans know.
   • The result is that thinking becomes so mechanical that it is best done by managers and machines; reason devolves into a technology of control wielded by the wealthy and powerful.
   • This rant then devolves into a general pasting of popular music and is not especially coherent, but then, what do you want out of a one-eared, stuffed deer.
   • The promise of the first hour devolves into a muddle supporting every possible theory of who wrote Shakespeare while side plots involving Anne Hathaway and Queen Elizabeth lead nowhere.
   • The first half is pretty cool, as we meet the central character and see his peculiar behaviour, however in the second half it pretty much devolves into a boring conventional thriller with nothing especially interesting to say.
   • Bruce stews with indignity (and Nelson has one unforgettable meltdown), but at times in Act 2 the endeavor seemed in danger of devolving into a shouting contest.
   • Unfortunately, that intensity's exactly what's lacking in Yellowknife, a stylish road movie whose early promise devolves into a hash of bad sex and worse plotting.
   • And everything is devolving into a kind of chaos.
   • What starts off as an interesting premise quickly devolves into a melodrama that cannot be sustained by a cast of actors who look like they would rather be somewhere else.
   • Worse, fullbacks have devolved into one-dimensional blockers who may only see action on one-fifth of a team's snaps - and they're lucky to touch the ball at all.
   • To prevent Burnt Sugar's music from devolving into self-indulgent jam band territory, early in the group's development Tate began using conduction, a system of baton gestures devised by Butch Morris.
   • Shielding programs from Congressional oversight allows for small programs to devolve into gigantic, often bizarre, schemes that would never pass muster with Congress.