implicate

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im·pli·cate / ˈimpliˌkāt/ • v. [tr.] 1. show (someone) to be involved in a crime: police claims implicated him in many more killings. ∎  (be implicated in) bear some of the responsibility for (an action or process, esp. a criminal or harmful one): the team believes he is heavily implicated in the bombing a chemical implicated in ozone depletion. ∎  involve (something) in a necessary way: cable franchise activities plainly implicate First Amendment interests.2. convey (a meaning or intention) indirectly through what one says, rather than stating it explicitly; imply: by saying that coffee would keep her awake, Mary implicated that she didn't want any.• n. chiefly Logic a thing implied.DERIVATIVES: im·pli·ca·tive / ˈimpliˌkātiv; imˈplikətiv/ adj.im·pli·ca·tive·ly adv.ORIGIN: late Middle English: from Latin implicatus ‘folded in,’ past participle of implicare (see imply). The original sense was ‘entwine, entangle’; compare with employ and imply. The earliest modern sense (sense 2) dates from the early 17th cent., but appears earlier in implication.

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