Adjacent Words

Divide definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DIVIDE, v.t. [L., to part. See the latter words.]
1. To part or separate an entire thing; to part a thing into two or more pieces.
Divide the living child in two. 1 Kings 3.
2. To cause to be separate; to keep apart by a partition or by an imaginary line or limit. A wall divides two houses. The equator divides the earth into two hemispheres.
Let the firmament divide the waters from the waters. Genesis 1.
3. To make partition of, among a number.
Ye shall divide the land by lot. Numbers 33.
4. To open; to cleave.
Thou dist divide the sea. Nehemiah 9.
5. To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant.
There shall be five in one house divided, three against two--Luke 12.
6. To distribute; to separate and bestow in parts or shares.
And he divided to them his living. Luke 15.
7. To make dividends; to apportion the interest or profits of stock among proprietors; as, the bank divides six per cent.
8. To separate into two parts, for ascertaining opinions for and against a measure; as, to divide a legislative house, in voting.
DIVIDE, v.i.
1. To part; to open; to cleave.
2. To break friendship; as, brothers divide.
3. To vote by the division of a legislative house into two parts.
The emperors sat, voted and divided with their equals.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a serious disagreement between two groups of people (typically producing tension or hostility)
2: a ridge of land that separates two adjacent river systems [syn: watershed, water parting, divide] v
1: separate into parts or portions; "divide the cake into three equal parts"; "The British carved up the Ottoman Empire after World War I" [syn: divide, split, split up, separate, dissever, carve up] [ant: unify, unite]
2: perform a division; "Can you divide 49 by seven?" [syn: divide, fraction] [ant: multiply]
3: act as a barrier between; stand between; "The mountain range divides the two countries" [syn: separate, divide]
4: come apart; "The two pieces that we had glued separated" [syn: separate, divide, part]
5: make a division or separation [syn: separate, divide]
6: force, take, or pull apart; "He separated the fighting children"; "Moses parted the Red Sea" [syn: separate, disunite, divide, part]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb (divided; dividing) Etymology: Middle English, from Latin dividere, from dis- + -videre to separate — more at widow Date: 14th century transitive verb 1. a. to separate into two or more parts, areas, or groups <divide the city into wards> b. to separate into classes, categories, or divisions <divide history into epochs> c. cleave, part <a ship dividing the waves> 2. a. to separate into portions and give out in shares ; distribute <divide profits> b. to possess, enjoy, or make use of in common <divide the blame> c. apportion <divides her time between the office and home> 3. a. to cause to be separate, distinct, or apart from one another <fields divided by stone walls> b. to separate into opposing sides or parties <the issues that divide us> c. to cause (a parliamentary body) to vote by division 4. a. to subject (a number or quantity) to the operation of finding how many times it contains another number or quantity <divide 42 by 14> b. to be used as a divisor with respect to (a dividend) <4 divides 16 evenly> c. to use as a divisor — used with into <divide 14 into 42> intransitive verb 1. to perform mathematical division 2. a. (1) to undergo replication, multiplication, fission, or separation into parts (2) to branch out b. to become separated or disunited especially in opinion or interest Synonyms: see separate, distribute • dividable adjective II. noun Date: 1642 1. an act of dividing 2. a. a dividing ridge between drainage areas b. a point or line of division or disagreement

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v. & n. --v. 1 tr. & intr. (often foll. by in, into) separate or be separated into parts; break up; split (the river divides into two; the road divides; divided them into three groups). 2 tr. & intr. (often foll. by out) distribute; deal; share (divided it out between them). 3 tr. a cut off; separate; part (divide the sheep from the goats). b mark out into parts (a ruler divided into inches). c specify different kinds of, classify (people can be divided into two types). 4 tr. cause to disagree; set at variance (religion divided them). 5 Math. a tr. find how many times (a number) contains another (divide 20 by 4). b intr. (of a number) be contained in (a number) without a remainder (4 divides into 20). c intr. be susceptible of division (10 divides by 2 and 5). d tr. find how many times (a number) is contained in another (divide 4 into 20). 6 intr. Math. do division (can divide well). 7 Parl. a intr. (of a legislative assembly etc.) part into two groups for voting (the House divided). b tr. so divide (a Parliament etc.) for voting. --n. 1 a dividing or boundary line (the divide between rich and poor). 2 a watershed. Phrases and idioms: divided against itself formed into factions. divided highway US a dual carriageway. divided skirt culottes. the Great Divide the boundary between life and death. Etymology: ME f. L dividere divis- (as DI-(2), vid- separate)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Divide Di*vide", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Divided; p. pr. & vb. n. Dividing.] [L. dividere, divisum; di- = dis- + root signifying to part; cf. Skr. vyadh to pierce; perh. akin to L. vidua widow, and E. widow. Cf. Device, Devise.] 1. To part asunder (a whole); to sever into two or more parts or pieces; to sunder; to separate into parts. Divide the living child in two. --1 Kings iii. 25. 2. To cause to be separate; to keep apart by a partition, or by an imaginary line or limit; as, a wall divides two houses; a stream divides the towns. Let it divide the waters from the waters. --Gen. i. 6. 3. To make partition of among a number; to apportion, as profits of stock among proprietors; to give in shares; to distribute; to mete out; to share. True justice unto people to divide. --Spenser. Ye shall divide the land by lot. --Num. xxxiii. 54. 4. To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance. If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom can not stand. --Mark iii. 24. Every family became now divided within itself. --Prescott. 5. To separate into two parts, in order to ascertain the votes for and against a measure; as, to divide a legislative house upon a question. 6. (Math.) To subject to arithmetical division. 7. (Logic) To separate into species; -- said of a genus or generic term. 8. (Mech.) To mark divisions on; to graduate; as, to divide a sextant. 9. (Music) To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations. [Obs.] --Spenser. Syn: To sever; dissever; sunder; cleave; disjoin; disunite; detach; disconnect; part; distribute; share.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Divide Di*vide", v. i. 1. To be separated; to part; to open; to go asunder. --Milton. The Indo-Germanic family divides into three groups. --J. Peile. 2. To cause separation; to disunite. A gulf, a strait, the sea intervening between islands, divide less than the matted forest. --Bancroft. 3. To break friendship; to fall out. --Shak. 4. To have a share; to partake. --Shak. 5. To vote, as in the British Parliament, by the members separating themselves into two parties (as on opposite sides of the hall or in opposite lobbies), that is, the ayes dividing from the noes. The emperors sat, voted, and divided with their equals. --Gibbon.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Divide Di*vide", n. A dividing ridge of land between the tributaries of two streams; a watershed.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(divides, dividing, divided) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. When people or things are divided or divide into smaller groups or parts, they become separated into smaller parts. The physical benefits of exercise can be divided into three factors... It will be easiest if we divide them into groups... Divide the pastry in half and roll out each piece... We divide into pairs and each pair takes a region... Bacteria reproduce by dividing and making copies of themselves. = split VERB: be V-ed into pl-n, V n into pl-n, V n in fraction, V into pl-n, V, also V n 2. If you divide something among people or things, you separate it into several parts or quantities which you distribute to the people or things. Divide the sauce among 4 bowls. = share VERB: V n between/among pl-n 3. If you divide a larger number by a smaller number or divide a smaller number into a larger number, you calculate how many times the smaller number can fit exactly into the larger number. Measure the floor area of the greenhouse and divide it by six. VERB: V n by/into num 4. If a border or line divides two areas or divides an area into two, it keeps the two areas separate from each other. ...remote border areas dividing Tamil and Muslim settlements. ...the long frontier dividing Mexico from the United States. = separate VERB: V n, V n from n 5. If people divide over something or if something divides them, it causes strong disagreement between them. She has done more to divide the Conservatives than anyone else... The party is likely to divide along ideological lines. ? unite VERB: V n, V prep 6. A divide is a significant distinction between two groups, often one that causes conflict. ...a deliberate attempt to create a Hindu-Muslim divide in India. = rift N-COUNT: usu sing, usu with supp 7. A divide is a moment in time or a point in a process when there is a complete change from one situation to another. The time had come to cross the great divide between formality and truth. = watershed N-COUNT: usu sing, usu with supp 8. You use divide and rule to refer to a policy which is intended to keep someone in a position of power by causing disagreements between people who might otherwise unite against them. The government's policies of divide and rule have only contributed to the volatility of the region. PHRASE [disapproval]

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

di-vid': It is difficult to decide whether ragha` (Job 26:12; Isa 51:15; Jer 31:35) should be rendered "to stir up" or "to still." The Hebrew has both meanings. Some render "He causes the sea to tremble." the Revised Version (British and American) reads "to stir" in text and "to still" in margin, while the King James Version has "to divide" in all three cases. 2Ch 35:13, "carried them quickly" (the King James Version "divided them speedily"). Since cholaq, may mean either "to distribute" or "to be smooth," Ho 10:2 reads "their heart is divided" in the text, but offers "smooth" in margin (the King James Version "divided"). The Greek orthotomeo, means "to cut straight," hence, the more literal translation of 2Ti 2:15, "handling aright the word of truth" (note "holding a straight course in the way of truth" or "rightly dividing the word of truth"; the King James Version "rightly dividing").

A. L. Breslich

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. v. a. 1. Sever, sunder, part, separate, cleave, disunite. 2. Keep apart, put a barrier between. 3. Make hostile, make discordant, set at variance, disunite, alienate, estrange. 4. Distribute, allot, apportion, assign, share, mete, dispense, dole, deal out, parcel out, portion out. II. v. n. Part, separate, cleave, open, diverge, go asunder, divaricate, fork, be divided, be separated.

1811 Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue

To divide the house with one's wife; to give her the outside, and to keep all the inside to one's self, i.e. to turn her into the street.

Moby Thesaurus

Continental Divide, Great Divide, aberrate, abrupt, add, aggravate, agree to differ, agree to disagree, algebraize, alienate, allocate, allot, alphabetize, analyze, anatomize, apportion, appraise, appreciate, arrange, assay, assess, assign, assort, atomize, ballot, be at variance, be in dissent, be partners in, beg to differ, bifurcate, bisect, bolt, bound, branch, branch out, break down, break up, break with, broach, by two, calculate, calibrate, caliper, canvass, carve, carve up, cast, cast a ballot, cast off, cast out, catalog, categorize, change, check a parameter, chink, chop, chop logic, cipher, circumscribe, class, classify, cleave, codify, collate, come between, compute, contradistinguish, cooperate, cordon, cordon off, count, crack, crevasse, cull out, cut, cut adrift, cut in two, cut off, cut open, cut out, cut up, deal, deal out, decrease, delete, demarcate, demark, depart, deploy, desynonymize, detach, dial, dichotomize, differ, difference, differentiate, digest, dimidiate, disaccord, disaffect, disagree, disagree with, disarticulate, disburse, disconnect, discord, discord with, discriminate, disengage, disequalize, disjoin, disjoint, dispart, dispense, disperse, dissect, dissent, dissent from, dissociate, distinguish, distribute, district, disunite, divaricate, diverge, diversify, divide into shares, divide on, divide up, divide with, divorce, divvy, divvy up, divvy up with, dole out, dope out, draw the line, drop out, eject, enclose, estimate, estrange, evaluate, expel, extract roots, fall out, fan out, fan the flame, fathom, fence off, figure, figure in, figure out, file, fission, fissure, fix, fly open, fork, gauge, ghettoize, gin, give out, go away, go even stephen, go fifty-fifty, go halvers, go halves, go off, go shares, gradate, grade, graduate, group, halve, have a falling-out, in half, incise, increase, index, individualize, individuate, insulate, irritate, isolate, keep apart, keep aside, lay aside, lay open, leave, light the fuse, limit, list, make a distinction, make trouble, mark, mark off, mark out, mark the interface, measure, measure out, mensurate, mete, mete out, meter, modify, multiply, not agree, number, ope, open, open up, oppose, order, organize, outspread, pace, panel, parcel, parcel out, part, part company, particularize, partition, personalize, pick out, pigeonhole, pit against, place, plumb, plump, poll, portion, prize, probe, prorate, provoke, pull away, pull back, pull out, put aside, put in order, quantify, quantize, quarantine, quota, ramify, range, rank, rate, ration, reckon, reduce, reduce to elements, refine a distinction, rent, resolve, riddle, rift, rip, rive, score, screen, screen out, secede, seclude, section, segment, segregate, select, separate, sequester, set a limit, set against, set apart, set aside, set at odds, set at variance, set off, set on, sever, severalize, share, share in, share out, share with, shift, shut off, sic on, sieve, sieve out, sift, sift out, size, size up, slice, slice the pie, slice up, slit, sort, sort out, sound, sow dissension, span, specialize, splay, split, split hairs, split in two, split the difference, split up, spread, spread out, spring open, stand apart, stand aside, step, step aside, stir up trouble, subdivide, subordinate, subtilize, subtract, sunder, surround, survey, swing open, tabulate, take a reading, take account of, take exception, take issue, tally, tap, tear, tear open, thrash, thresh, throw off, throw open, throw out, transect, triangulate, type, uncouple, unyoke, valuate, value, vary, vote, wall off, water parting, watershed, weigh, winnow, withdraw, withhold assent, work out, zone