• (British) IPA: /ɹɪˈzɒlv/, /ɹiːˈzɒlv/
• (America) IPA: /ɹɪˈzɑlv/

resolve (resolves, present participle resolving; past and past participle resolved)

1. (transitive) To find a solution to (a problem).
   • 1599, [William Shakespeare], The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift, […] (First Quarto), London: Printed by Thomas Creede, for Tho[mas] Millington, and Iohn Busby, […], published 1600, OCLC 932920979 ↗, [Act I, scene i] ↗:

     Exeter. Shall I call in Thambaſſadors my Liege? / King. Not yet my Couſin, til we be reſolude / Of ſome ſerious matters touching vs and France.

2. (transitive) To reduce to simple or intelligible notions; to make clear or certain; to unravel; to explain.

   to resolve a riddle

   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Resolve my doubt.

3. (intransitive) To make a firm decision to do something.

   I resolve to finish this work before I go home.

4. (transitive) To determine or decide in purpose; to make ready in mind; to fix; to settle.

   He was resolved by an unexpected event.

5. To come to an agreement or make peace; patch up relationship, settle differences, bury the hatchet.

   After two weeks of bickering, they finally resolved their differences.

6. (transitive, intransitive, reflexive) To break down into constituent parts; to decompose; to disintegrate; to return to a simpler constitution or a primeval state.
   • c. 1599–1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene ii]:

     O, that this too too solid flesh would melt, / Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

   • Ye immortal souls, who once were men, / And now resolved to elements again.

7. To cause to perceive or understand; to acquaint; to inform; to convince; to assure; to make certain.
   • 1733, Alexander Pope, Epistle to Bathurst:

     Resolve me, Reason, which of these is worse, / Want with a full, or with an empty purse?

   • In health, good air, pleasure, riches, I am resolved it can not be equalled by any region.

   • 1644, J[ohn] M[ilton], The Doctrine or Discipline of Divorce: […] in Two Books: […], 2nd edition, London: [s.n.], OCLC 868004604 ↗, book 9:

     We must be resolved how the law can be pure and perspicuous, and yet throw a polluted skirt over these Eleusinian mysteries.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

     She was proceeding in this manner when the surgeon entered the room. The lieutenant immediately asked how his patient did. But he resolved him only by saying, "Better, I believe, than he would have been by this time, if I had not been called; and even as it is, perhaps it would have been lucky if I could have been called sooner."

8. (music) To cause a chord to go from dissonance to consonance.
9. (optics) To render visible or distinguishable the parts of something.
10. (computing) To find the IP address of a hostname, or the entity referred to by a symbol in source code; to look up.
11. (rare, transitive) To melt; to dissolve; to liquefy or soften (a solid).
12. (rare, intransitive, reflexive) To melt; to dissolve; to become liquid.

    • When the blood stagnates in any part, it first coagulates, then resolves, and turns alkaline.

13. (obsolete, transitive) To liquefy (a gas or vapour).
14. (medicine, dated) To disperse or scatter; to discuss, as an inflammation or a tumour.
15. (obsolete) To relax; to lay at ease.
16. (chemistry) To separate racemic compounds into their enantiomers.
17. (math, archaic, transitive) To solve (an equation, etc.).

• French: résoudre
• German: lösen, auflösen
• Italian: risolvere, accordarsi
• Portuguese: resolver, decidir
• Russian: реша́ть
• Spanish: resolver, solventar

• Portuguese: resolver
• Russian: реша́ться
• Spanish: resolver

• Italian: smantellare, scomporre, disintegrare

• Italian: accordare
• Spanish: resolver

• Spanish: disolver

• Italian: sciogliere

• Italian: liquefare

• French: résoudre
• Italian: risolvere
• Portuguese: resolver
• Spanish: resolver

resolve

1. Determination; will power.

   It took all my resolve to go through with the surgery.

2. A determination to do something; a fixed decision.
   • 1995, William Arctander O'Brien, Novalis, Signs of Revolution (page 56)

     His resolve to die is weakening as he grows accustomed to Sophie's absence, and all his attempts to master irresolution only augment it.

3. (countable) An act of resolving something; resolution.
   • 2008, Matt Lombard, SolidWorks 2007 Bible (page 956)

     Some operations require data that, in turn, requires that lightweight components be resolved. In these cases, this option determines whether the user is prompted to approve the resolve or whether components are just resolved automatically.

• fortitude, inner strength, resoluteness, sticktoitiveness, tenacity

• German: Entschlossenheit
• Russian: реши́мость
• Spanish: resolución

• (British) IPA: /ɹiˈsɒlv/
• (America) IPA: /ɹiˈsɑlv/

resolve (resolves, present participle resolving; past and past participle resolved)

1. (transitive) To solve again.

   I’ll have to resolve the equation with the new values.

• Italian: risolvere