ramify

present singular third person ramifies · participle present ramifying · participle past ramified · past ramified

1. ambitransitiveTo divide into branches or subdivisions.

   The cortical, hemispheral or superficial veins ramify on the surface of the brain and return the blood from the cortical substance into the venous sinuses.

   1893, Henry Morris, Human Anatomy, page 648

   Synonyms: branch

2. figurativelyTo spread or diversify into multiple fields or categories.

   to ramify an art, subject, scheme

   2 more examples

   And, of course, on such momentous occasions as these, Manning was in his element. None knew those difficult ropes better than he; none used them with a more serviceable and yet discreet alacrity. In every juncture he had the right word, or the right silence; his influence ramified in all directions, from the Pope's audience chamber to the English Cabinet.

   1918 May 9, Lytton Strachey, “[Cardinal Manning.] Chapter VII”, in Eminent Victorians: Cardinal Manning, Florence Nightingale, Dr. Arnold, General Gordon (Library of English Literature; LEL 11347), London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 89

   My point here is that the field within which such determination takes place is not bounded to constitute a single discipline, a single academic elite, a single language domain, a single culture, a single historical period, but that that field ramifies out so as to encompass, ultimately, the entire history of the whole of humankind.

   2003, Wim van Binsbergen, Intercultural Encounters: African and anthropological lessons towards a philosophy of interculturality, page 285