Definition of "derive"

derive

/dəˈɹaɪv/

verb
third-person singular simple present derives, present participle deriving, simple past and past participle derived
1. (transitive) To obtain or receive (something) from something else.
  Quotations
  Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.
  2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4
2. (transitive, logic) To deduce (a conclusion) by reasoning.
3. (transitive, linguistics) To find the derivation of (a word or phrase).
4. (transitive, chemistry) To create (a compound) from another by means of a reaction.
5. (intransitive) To originate or stem (from).
  Quotations
  As in much of biology, the most satisfying truths in ecology derive from manipulative experimentation. Tinker with nature and quantify how it responds.
  2012 January, Robert M. Pringle, “How to Be Manipulative”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, page 31
6. To turn the course of (water, etc.); to divert and distribute into subordinate channels.
  Quotations
  For fear it [water] choke up the pits […] they [the workman] deriue it by other drains.
  1601, C[aius] Plinius Secundus [i.e., Pliny the Elder], “(please specify |book=I to XXXVII)”, in Philemon Holland, transl., The Historie of the World. Commonly Called, The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. […], (please specify |tome=1 or 2), London: […] Adam Islip, published 1635

Definition of "derive"

derive

verb

Quotations

Quotations

Quotations