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devote
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
devote
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a chapter is devoted to sth (=it deals only with a particular subject)
▪ Five whole chapters are devoted to social reform.
a devoted fan (=a strong supporter or admirer)
▪ Devoted fans from all over the country have travelled to the concert.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
amount
▪ That is why the social anthropologists are justified in devoting such an inordinate amount of attention to the field of kinship.
▪ They devote an inordinate amount of time, effort and resource to developing high-calibre managers.
attention
▪ They were thus able to devote more attention to two increasingly critical areas.
▪ One reason the small companies do so well is they can devote more personal attention to each project.
▪ I am conscious of the late payment problem, which is something to which we are devoting great attention.
▪ Why is a major news organization devoting attention to a couple of orange slabs melted between two slices of bread?
▪ He was right to devote a lot of attention to them.
▪ He had to devote all his attention to the routine task of driving, finally pulling over to recover.
▪ The employee arrives here unsettled and is unlikely to be able to devote full attention and energies to the assignment.
▪ The managers were devoting attention to the wrong issues in their interactions with veteran subordinates.
chapter
▪ Why devote a chapter to him in a book which explicitly encourages its readers to pay attention to this music?
▪ Later we devote a full chapter to the application of rational expectations to the theory and estimation of the aggregate consumption function.
effort
▪ Effective exchange of information is essential, and we devote considerable efforts to that.
▪ This happens when the employee learns to escape the personal dilemma temporarily by devoting more effort to his or her job.
▪ Typical farmers who devote their own effort to the operation should also count the value of their time as a cost.
▪ The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are also devoting resources to this effort.
energies
▪ Instead devote your energies to something that will definitely be successful.
▪ Critics of such parental activities argue that activist parents should be devoting their energies to lobbying legislatures to fund all schools adequately.
▪ The Government's attitude is two-faced - they are also devoting all their energies to preventing the directive from coming into force.
▪ Many said they would rather devote their energies to defeating Clinton than quarreling over the wording in the party platform.
▪ Early in 1915 most of the younger activists resigned in order to devote their energies to developing a women's peace movement.
▪ For the moment, union officials are devoting their energies to the labor dispute at Quincy Farms.
▪ The employee arrives here unsettled and is unlikely to be able to devote full attention and energies to the assignment.
▪ A worthwhile alternative to becoming a business tycoon is to devote your energies to voluntary work.
energy
▪ As for the moody magnetism Method actors devote all their energy trying to perfect, Allen can take it or leave it.
▪ They acknowledged that they should devote time and energy to developing relationships with those outside their unit.
▪ The person decides consciously or not to devote time and energy to a particular activity.
▪ Well, for one thing, they devote time, energy, and community resources to creating great works of spiritual art.
▪ They may also have to devote energy searching for services to which the child has a right.
▪ A low-performing organization that continues to devote scarce time and energy to the pursuit of remote goals is courting disappointment.
▪ They began to see that devoting time and energy to this endeavor bore fruit.
life
▪ Independent means gave her the opportunity to devote her life to social causes and world peace.
▪ I have decided that I will devote my life to trying to find the still center of the turning wheel.
▪ Those who devote their lives to others have that inspiration.
▪ He was developing an acute social and political conscience, and I could see him devoting his life to the Labour Party.
▪ So, she would not leave her home, and devote her life to the grand mission of the education of men.
▪ She turned her back on acting in 1973 to devote her life to animals, becoming a recluse.
▪ That day Khader decided she would devote her life to fighting discrimination against women.
▪ But there seemed to be no valid reason for not devoting one's whole life to religion.
money
▪ It can instead devote its time, money, and energy to maximizing the benefits it has realized.
percent
▪ At a meeting held in Tunis, the states undertook to devote at least five percent of their territory to nature conservation.
▪ You were either capable of doing the job and willing to devote 100 percent to the job, or you got out.
space
▪ It means, too, devoting as much space as possible to selling rather than seating.
▪ It is unusual for us to devote much space to fiction.
▪ Religious Persecution I shall devote very little space to this subject.
time
▪ This adversity he turned to good advantage, for here was time to devote to his beloved natural history.
▪ She knows that once the Pac-10 season begins in two weeks she will have no time to devote to her case.
▪ Keeping up with the day-to-day pressure of everyday life leaves little time to devote to ourselves.
▪ Even in the brief time she supposedly was devoting herself exclusively to the manuscript, she was doing other things.
▪ How much of your time will you devote to study during academic terms?
▪ Mrs M no longer had the time to devote to the girl who sought schooling for herself.
▪ At the same time it aims to devote more resources to special training needs.
▪ When I've more time to devote to him these ... others ... won't be necessary.
■ VERB
continue
▪ A low-performing organization that continues to devote scarce time and energy to the pursuit of remote goals is courting disappointment.
decide
▪ She was deciding to devote herself to supporting him as he leapt from one peak to another.
▪ He was just twenty-four when on his first visit to Niagara he decided to devote himself to landscape painting.
▪ That day Khader decided she would devote her life to fighting discrimination against women.
▪ You may decide to devote less of your time to work and more to your family.
▪ I have decided that I will devote my life to trying to find the still center of the turning wheel.
want
▪ Just as there was nothing Lowell wanted to devote himself to - other than music.
▪ You Republicans want to devote millions of dollars to military weapons.
▪ Doctors who want to devote much of their time to research are undervalued.
▪ I want to devote all my time to finding out who murdered Sandy.
▪ For now I want to devote my all to what I am doing now.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ He's decided to give up racing and devote all his time to his farm in Ireland.
▪ She intends to devote the next ten years to her charitable work.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ At any output of films in excess of Q *;, society would be devoting too many resources to the film industry.
▪ He wanted a woman who could devote herself to a man, kids, family.
▪ He was right to devote a lot of attention to them.
▪ He would devote more time to her.
▪ Many schools devote almost a third of the allotted time for each lesson to these exercises.
▪ She was deciding to devote herself to supporting him as he leapt from one peak to another.
▪ Some will resign from big business and devote themselves to turning an idea or hobby into a business of their own.
▪ We shall look at it in some detail in this chapter, devoting two sections, 5.1 and 5.2, to it.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Devote

Devote \De*vote"\, a. [L. devotus, p. p.] Devoted; addicted; devout. [Obs.]
--Milton.

Devote

Devote \De*vote"\, n. A devotee. [Obs.]
--Sir E. Sandys.

Devote

Devote \De*vote"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Devoted; p. pr. & vb. n. Devoting.] [L. devotus, p. p. of devovere; de + vovere to vow. See Vow, and cf. Devout, Devow.]

  1. To appropriate by vow; to set apart or dedicate by a solemn act; to consecrate; also, to consign over; to doom; to evil; to devote one to destruction; the city was devoted to the flames.

    No devoted thing that a man shall devote unto the Lord . . . shall be sold or redeemed.
    --Lev. xxvii. 28.

  2. To execrate; to curse. [Obs.]

  3. To give up wholly; to addict; to direct the attention of wholly or compound; to attach; -- often with a reflexive pronoun; as, to devote one's self to science, to one's friends, to piety, etc.

    Thy servant who is devoted to thy fear.
    --Ps. cxix. 38.

    They devoted themselves unto all wickedness.
    --Grew.

    A leafless and simple branch . . . devoted to the purpose of climbing.
    --Gray.

    Syn: To addict; apply; dedicate; consecrate; resign; destine; doom; consign. See Addict.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
devote

1580s, from Latin devotus, past participle of devovere (see devotion). Second and third meanings in Johnson's Dictionary (1755) are "to addict, to give up to ill" and "to curse, to execrate; to doom to destruction." Related: Devoted; devoting.

Wiktionary
devote

  1. (context obsolete English) Devoted; addicted; devout. v

  2. 1 To give one's time, focus one's efforts, commit oneself, et

  3. entirely for, on, or to a certain matter. 2 To consign over; to doom. 3 To execrate; to curse.

WordNet
devote

  1. v. give entirely to a specific person, activity, or cause; "She committed herself to the work of God"; "give one's talents to a good cause"; "consecrate your life to the church" [syn: give, dedicate, consecrate, commit]

  2. dedicate; "give thought to"; "give priority to"; "pay attention to" [syn: give, pay]

  3. set aside or apart for a specific purpose or use; "this land was devoted to mining"

Usage examples of "devote".

Sensing he was the favorite, Adams was soon devoting every possible hour to her, and when not, dreaming of her.

When members of the Massachusetts legislature came to Quincy to present Adams with a tribute to his devoted service to his country, he was moved to tears.

I could not walk down the street, or take part in ordinary duty or pleasure without being reminded of the dear dead Jane, and of the pleasant aftertime we had dreamed of when she should be restored through my instrumentality to her old quiet home and a life of peace, in which, shielded from every evil, she might devote her days to good deeds and repentance.

Herbert Akron, and Herbert Akron is very devoted to people who make him comfortable.

Lagos, was devoted entirely to the report of Meyer Horowitz on the iceberg Alamo operation.

Stimpson, it was thought that a proven warehouseman would be more helpful than a third alieni st Even with the most rigorous schedule and the briefest of consultations, it was clear to Thomas that he would not be able to follow the course of six hundred illnesses, let alone devote to them the long-term observation they required.

On some particular occasions, when the magistrates were exasperated by some personal motives of interest or resentment, the rules of prudence, and perhaps of decency, to overturn the altars, to pour out imprecations against the emperors, or to strike the judge as he sat on his tribunal, it may be presumed, that every mode of torture which cruelty could invent, or constancy could endure, was exhausted on those devoted victims.

But I have discovered that in this Exile world he devoted himself instead to the domestication of chatikot and heuadotberia and amphicyons, which became pivotal in the subsequent Tanu domination of society.

It makes possible to an extent the tracing of pet animals, lost or stolen, which now find themselves devoted to vivisection.

The next few days Tarzan devoted to the weaving of a barkcloth sail with which to equip the canoe, for he despaired of being able to teach the apes to wield the paddles, though he did manage to get several of them to embark in the frail craft which he and Mugambi paddled about inside the reef where the water was quite smooth.

Hills of Apion, it was the custom of the Blade Kingdoms to devote themselves to war.

One nun, Sister John Appassionata, took a special interest in Jude and under her devoted care he found his voice again.

Paris, this eleventh of November, your devoted husband, Robert Appleton, Knight.

O thou, the very power by which I am, And but for which it were in vain to be, Chief next Diana, virgin heavenly fair, Admired Arete, of them admired Whose souls are not enkindled by the sense, Disdain not my chaste fire, but feed the flame Devoted truly to thy gracious name.

X himself devoted his valuable time to rooting through the debris of the New Atlantan immune system proved this.