RESOLU'TION, n. [L. resolutio. See Resolve.]

1. The act, operation or process of separating the parts which compose a complex idea or a mixed body; the act of reducing any compound or combination to its component parts; analysis; as, the resolution of complex ideas; the resolution of any material substance by chimical operations.
2. The act or process of unraveling or disentangling perplexities, or of dissipating obscurity in moral subjects; as, the resolution of difficult questions in moral subjects.
3. Dissolution; the natural process of separating the component parts of bodies. – Digby.
4. In music, the resolution of dissonance, is the carrying of it, according to rule, into a consonance in the subsequent chord. – Encyc.
5. In medicine, the disappearing of any tumor without coming to suppuration; the dispersing of inflammation; the breaking up and disappearance of a fever. – Encyc. Coxe.
6. Fixed purpose or determination of mind; as, a resolution to reform our lives; a resolution to undertake an expedition. – Locke.
7. The effect of fixed purpose; firmness, steadiness or constancy in execution, implying courage. They who governed the parliament, had the resolution to act those monstrous things. – Clarendon.
8. Determination of a cause in a court of justice; as, a judicial resolution. – Hale. [But this word is now seldom used to express the decision of a judicial tribunal. We use judgment, decision or decree.]
9. The determination or decision of a legislative body, or a formal proposition offered for legislative determination. We call that a resolution, which is reduced to form and offered to a legislative house for consideration, and we call it a resolution when adopted. We say, a member moved certain resolutions; the house proceeded to consider the resolutions offered; they adopted or rejected the resolutions.
10. The formal determination of any corporate body, or of any association of individuals; as, the resolutions of a town or other meeting.
11. In algebra, the resolution of an equation, is the same as reduction; the bringing of the unknown quantity by itself on one side, and all the known quantities on the other, without destroying the equation, by which is found the value of the unknown quantity. – Day's Algebra.
12. Relaxation; a weakening. [Obs.] – Brown.

1. The act, operation, or process of resolving. Specifically: (a) The act of separating a compound into its elements or component parts. (b) The act of analyzing a complex notion, or solving a vexed question or difficult problem.
   
   

   The unraveling and resolution of the difficulties that are met with in the execution of the design are the end of an action. Dryden.

2. The state of being relaxed; relaxation.
   
   
   [Obs.]
3. The state of being resolved, settled, or determined; firmness; steadiness; constancy; determination.
   
   

   Be it with resolution then to fight. Shak.

4. That which is resolved or determined; a settled purpose; determination. Specifically: A formal expression of the opinion or will of an official body or a public assembly, adopted by vote; as, a legislative resolution; the resolutions of a public meeting.
5. The state of being resolved or firm in opinion or thought; conviction; assurance.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   Little resolution and certainty there is as touching the islands of Mauritania. Holland.

6. The act or process of solving; solution; as, the resolution of an equation or problem.
7. A breaking up, disappearance; or termination, as of a fever, a tumor, or the like.
8. The passing of a dissonant into a consonant chord by the rising or falling of the note which makes the discord.
   
   

   Joint resolution. See under Joint, a. -- Resolution of a force or motion (Mech.), the separation of a single force or motion into two or more which have different directions, and, taken together, are an equivalent for the single one; -- the opposite of composition of a force. -- Resolution of a nebula (Astron.), the exhibition of it to the eye by a telescope of such power as to show it to be composed of small stars.

   Syn. -- Decision; analysis; separation; disentanglement; dissolution; resolvedness; resoluteness; firmness; constancy; perseverance; steadfastness; fortitude; boldness; purpose; resolve. See Decision.