dévouer

Rarely used outside its reflexive form se dévouer — to devote oneself to a cause, a person, or (informally) to volunteer for an unpleasant task nobody else wants. The plain transitive dévouer (to devote something) is comparatively formal and old-fashioned.

• Elle s'est dévouée corps et âme à cette association. — She devoted herself body and soul to that charity.
• Personne ne voulait le faire, alors je me suis dévoué. — Nobody wanted to do it, so I volunteered.
• Il a dévoué sa vie à la recherche médicale. — He devoted his life to medical research.

Learners often forget the reflexive pronoun and just say 'j'ai dévoué' for 'I volunteered' — outside the fixed literary phrase dévouer sa vie à, the reflexive se dévouer is what a French speaker actually uses in everyday contexts.