Emily Dickinson Lexicon

RE-SOLVE', v.t. [rezolv'; L. resolvo; re and solvo, to loose; Fr. resoudre; It. risolvere; Sp. resolver.]

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.