Crossword clues for divest
divest
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Divest \Di*vest"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Divested; p. pr. & vb. n. Divesting.] [LL. divestire (di- = dis- + L. vestire to dress), equiv. to L. devestire. It is the same word as devest, but the latter is rarely used except as a technical term in law. See Devest, Vest.]
To unclothe; to strip, as of clothes, arms, or equipage; -- opposed to invest.
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Fig.: To strip; to deprive; to dispossess; as, to divest one of his rights or privileges; to divest one's self of prejudices, passions, etc.
Wretches divested of every moral feeling.
--Goldsmith.The tendency of the language to divest itself of its gutturals.
--Earle. (Law) See Devest.
--Mozley & W.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1560s, devest (modern spelling is c.1600), from Middle French devester "strip of possessions," from Old French desvestir, from des- "away" (see dis-) + vestir "to clothe" (see vest (v.)).\n
\nThe figurative sense of "strip of possessions" is earliest in English; reflexive sense of "to strip oneself of" is from c.1600. Economic sense (implied in divestment) is from 1955. Related: Divested; divesting.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context transitive archaic English) To undress, disrobe. 2 (context transitive English) To strip, deprive, or dispossess (someone) (term: of) something (such as a right, passion, privilege, or prejudice). 3 (context transitive English) To sell off or be rid of through sale, especially of a subsidiary
WordNet
v. take away possessions from someone; "The Nazis stripped the Jews of all their assets" [syn: deprive, strip]
deprive of status or authority; "he was divested of his rights and his title"; "They disinvested themselves of their rights" [syn: disinvest] [ant: invest]
reduce or dispose of; cease to hold (an investment); "The company decided to divest"; "the board of trustees divested $20 million in real estate property"; "There was pressure on the univeristy to disinvest in South Africa" [syn: disinvest] [ant: invest]
remove (someone's or one's own) clothes; "The nurse quickly undressed the accident victim"; "She divested herself of her outdoor clothes"; "He disinvested himself of his garments" [syn: strip, undress, disinvest]
Usage examples of "divest".
After all, if we coolly consider those arguments which have been bandied about, and retorted with such eagerness and acrimony in the house of commons, and divest them of those passionate tropes and declamatory metaphors which the spirit of opposition alone had produced, we shall find very little left for the subject of dispute, and sometimes be puzzled to discover any material source of disagreement.
Point, seven miles from Amygdaloid Island, she began to debate whether to pour her wine or divest herself of her uniform first upon reaching home.
So far as we can demonstrate traces of independent religious knowledge among the so-called Apostolic Fathers of the post-apostolic age, they are in thorough harmony with the theories of the Apologists, which are merely expressed with precision and divested of Old Testament language.
When the signal came, Bibbs went to the office, where he divested himself of his overalls--his single divergence from the routine of his fellow-workmen--and after that he used soap and water copiously.
Alastair Bing divested himself of his jacket and boots, and, feeling extremely foolish, stepped into the bath.
At last Erg Noor, divested of his heavy spacesuit, was able to enter his ship or rather to crawl in under the influence of the gravity of the fearful planet.
He felt fluid, smooth as silk, even after picking the locks of his shackles, divesting himself of his chains, and taking out a fully armed escort.
One reason uploading his consciousness had initially seemed appealing was to divest himself of these dermal imperfections.
That canceled a huge part of the debt we were running up, and in parallel with that we divested some other assets to holding companies and reassigned share ownership of the core company to Amethi residents.
Divest this passage of the latent sarcasm betrayed by the subsequent tone of the whole disquisition, and it might commence a Christian history written in the most Christian spirit of candor.
Fathom presume upon these misconstructions, that she at length divested her tongue of all restraint, and behaved in such a manner, that the young lady, confounded and incensed at her indecency and impudence, rebuked her with great severity, and commanded her to reform her discourse, on pain of being dismissed with disgrace from her service.
He was a strong man with an austere command of himself, and when he had to face death he divested himself of all that could palliate the suffering, and stood up to it with a stark resolution which was more Roman than Christian.
Tomb whose shadowy shaft sinks precipitously for fiftythree feet to a sinister sarcophagus which one of our camel drivers divested of the cumbering sand after a vertiginous descent by rope.
Elizabeth had already divested herself of hat, coat, and jacket, and Marina found herself eyeing the fashionable emerald trumpet skirt with its trimming of black soutache braid and the cream silk shirtwaist with its softening fall of Venice lace with a pang of envy.
For the moment, however, we left the derelict creature, and with joyful hearts, for we unpractised visitors were weary and aching, found ourselves once more in front of the engraved portal of the roof, and finally standing safe and sound, divested of our vitrine bells, on the sloppy floor of the entrance chamber.