resolves

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular present of resolve.

   The detective resolves each case through patient deduction.

   Heating the mixture resolves the cloudiness within minutes.

   Note

   This is the present-tense form for he, she, it and any singular noun subject. Every other person keeps bare resolve. It shares its spelling with the plural noun, so the surrounding grammar tells them apart. As a verb it is unusually flexible. It can take an object (she resolves the dispute), an infinitive of intention (he resolves to quit), or a reflexive pronoun (the mixture resolves itself into its parts).

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of resolve. Rare.

   Note

   Only the countable meanings of resolve can take a plural. Resolve as will power is uncountable, so resolves means separate fixed decisions, or separate acts of resolving, for which resolution is the near synonym. Several resolves to do better are distinct intentions. They are not a larger quantity of one steady will.

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