RESOLVE, v.t. rezolv'. [L. resolvo; re and solvo, to loose.]

1. Fixed purpose of mind; settled determination; resolution. He strait revokes his bold resolve. – Denham.
2. Legal or official determination; legislative act concerning a private person or corporation, or concerning some private business. Public acts of a legislature respect the state, and to give them validity, the bills for such acts must pass through all the legislative forms. Resolves are usually private acts, and are often passed with less formality. Resolves may also be the acts of a single branch of the legislature; whereas public acts must be passed by a majority of both branches. – American Legislatures.
3. The determination of any corporation or association; resolution.

1. To fix in opinion or purpose; to determine in mind. He resolved to abandon his vicious course of life.
2. To determine by vote. The legislature resolved to receive no petitions after a certain day.
3. To melt; to dissolve; to become fluid. When the blood stagnates in any part, it first coagulates, then resolves and turns alkaline. – Arbuthnot.
4. To separate into its component parts, or into distinct principles; as, water resolves into vapor; a substance resolves into gas.
5. To be settled in opinion. Let men resolve of that as they please. [Unusual.] – Locke.

1. To separate the component parts of a compound substance; to reduce to first principles; as, to resolve a body into its component or constituent parts; to resolve a body into its elements.
2. To separate the parts of a complex idea; to reduce to simple parts; to analyze.
3. To separate the parts of a complicated question; to unravel; to disentangle of perplexities; to remove obscurity by analysis; to clear of difficulties; to explain; as, to resolve questions in moral science; to resolve doubts; to resolve a riddle.
4. To inform; to free from doubt or perplexity; as, to resolve the conscience. Resolve me, strangers, whence and what you are? – Dryden.
5. To settle in an opinion; to make certain. Long since we were resolved of your truth, / Your faithful service and your toil in war. – Shak.
6. To confirm; to fix in constancy. Quit presently the chapel, or resolve you / For more amazement. [Unusual.] – Shak.
7. To melt; to dissolve. – Arbuthnot.
8. To form or constitute by resolution, vote or determination; as, the house resolved itself into a committee of the whole.
9. In music, to resolve a discord or dissonance, is to carry it, according to rule, into a consonance in the subsequent chord. – Rousseau. Encyc.
10. In medicine, to disperse or scatter; to discuss; as an inflammation or a tumor.
11. To relax; to lay at ease. – Spenser.
12. In algebra, to resolve an equation, is to bring all the known quantities to one side of the equation, and the unknown quantity to the other.

1. To separate the component parts of; to reduce to the constituent elements; -- said of compound substances; hence, sometimes, to melt, or dissolve.
   
   

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

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

2. To be separated into its component parts or distinct principles; to undergo resolution.
3. The act of resolving or making clear; resolution; solution.
   
   
   "To give a full resolve of that which is so much controverted." Milton.
4. To reduce to simple or intelligible notions; -- said of complex ideas or obscure questions; to make clear or certain; to free from doubt; to disentangle; to unravel; to explain; hence, to clear up, or dispel, as doubt; as, to resolve a riddle.
   
   
   "Resolve my doubt." Shak.

   To the resolving whereof we must first know that the Jews were commanded to divorce an unbelieving Gentile. Milton.

5. To melt; to dissolve; to become fluid.
   
   

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

6. That which has been resolved on or determined; decisive conclusion; fixed purpose; determination; also, legal or official determination; a legislative declaration; a resolution.
   
   

   Nor is your firm resolve unknown. Shak.

   Cæsar's approach has summoned us together,
   And Rome attends her fate from our resolves. Addison.

7. To cause to perceive or understand; to acquaint; to inform; to convince; to assure; to make certain.
   
   

   Sir, be resolved. I must and will come. Beau. *** Fl.

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

   In health, good air, pleasure, riches, I am resolved it can not be equaled by any region. Sir W. Raleigh.

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

8. To be settled in opinion; to be convinced.
   
   
   [R.]

   Let men resolve of that as they plaease. Locke.

9. To determine or decide in purpose] to make ready in mind; to fix; to settle; as, he was resolved by an unexpected event.
10. To form a purpose; to make a decision; especially, to determine after reflection; as, to resolve on a better course of life.
    
    

    Syn. -- To determine; decide; conclude; purpose.

11. To express, as an opinion or determination, by resolution and vote; to declare or decide by a formal vote; -- followed by a clause; as, the house resolved (or, it was resolved by the house) that no money should be apropriated (or, to appropriate no money).
12. To change or convert by resolution or formal vote; -- used only reflexively; as, the house resolved itself into a committee of the whole.
13. To solve, as a problem, by enumerating the several things to be done, in order to obtain what is required; to find the answer to, or the result of.
    
    
    Hutton.
14. To dispere or scatter; to discuss, as an inflammation or a tumor.
15. To let the tones (as of a discord) follow their several tendencies, resulting in a concord.
16. To relax; to lay at ease.
    
    
    [Obs.] B. Jonson.

    To resolve a nebula.(Astron.) See Resolution of a nebula, under Resolution.

    Syn. -- To solve; analyze; unravel; disentangle.