develop

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To grow or change gradually into something bigger, stronger, or more advanced.

   The small shop developed into a nationwide chain over twenty years.

2. 2
   verb

   To start to have something, such as an illness, quality, or skill.

   She developed a fever after the long flight.

3. 3
   verb

   To make a new product, idea, or plan and bring it into being.

   The team is developing a new app for language learners.

4. 4
   verb

   To explain or work out an idea or theory in more detail.

   Could you develop the main argument of your essay a little more?

5. 5
   verb

   (of a country or region) To become economically and technologically more advanced.

   Many countries in Asia are developing at a very fast pace.

Common collocations

• develop a relationship Verb + noun
• develop a sense Verb + noun
• develop an idea Verb + noun
• develop land Verb + noun
• developing country Adjective + noun

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”) http://www.wordnik.com/words/envelop. Akin to Middle English wlappen (“to wrap, fold”) (Modern English lap (“to wrap, involve, fold”)), Middle English wrappen (“to wrap”), Middle Dutch l…

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