resolve

What it means

1. transitiveTo find a solution to (a problem).

   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.

   1599 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift, […] (First Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Tho[mas] Millington, and Iohn Busby […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   Synonyms: decipher, upsolve, work out, absolve, decipher, get to the bottom of, iron out, meliorate

2. transitiveTo reduce to simple or intelligible notions; to make clear or certain; to unravel; to explain.

   to resolve a riddle

   2 more examples

   Resolve my doubt.

   c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]

   If such a dreamy touch should fall, ⁠O turn thee round, resolve the doubt, ⁠My guardian angel will speak out In that high place, and tell thee all.

   1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XLIII”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 66

3. intransitiveTo make a firm decision to do something. To become determined to reach a certain goal or take a certain action.

   I resolve to finish this work before I go home.

   1 more example

   At length, one night, when the company by ſome accident broke up much ſooner than ordinary, ſo that the candles were not half burnt out, ſhe was not able to reſiſt the temptation, but reſolved to have them ſome way or other. Accordingly, as ſoon as the hurry was over, and the ſervants, as ſhe thought, all gone to ſleep, ſhe ſtole out of her bed, and went down ſtairs, naked to her ſhift as ſhe was, with a deſign to ſteal them […]

   1762, Charles Johnstone, The Reverie; or, A Flight to the Paradise of Fools, volume 2, Dublin: […] Dillon Chamberlaine, →OCLC, page 202

In a sentence

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.

1599 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Cronicle History of Henry the Fift, […] (First Quarto), London: […] Thomas Creede, for Tho[mas] Millington, and Iohn Busby […], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

Where it comes from

1. Latinresolvō“loosen, thaw, melt, resolve”
2. Old Frenchresolver
3. Middle Englishresolven
4. Englishresolve

From Middle English resolven, from Old French resolver, a learned borrowing of Latin resolvō (“loosen, thaw, melt, resolve”), equivalent to re- + solve. Piecewise doublet of re-solve.