divide

A thing that divides.

Noun

  1. A thing that divides.
    • Stay on your side of the divide, please.
  2. An act of dividing.
    • The divide left most of the good land on my share of the property.
    • The extended instruction set may double the speed again if a lot of multiplies and divides are done. - 1975, Byte, numbers 1-8, page 14:
  3. A distancing between two people or things.
    • There is a great divide between us.
    • Republicans and Democrats interpret individualism differently, and those divides are more pronounced than ever in our deeply polarized political climate. - 2020 May 19, Scottie Andrew, “America’s response to the...
  4. A large chasm, gorge, or ravine between two areas of land.
    • If you're heading to the coast, you'll have to cross the divide first.
    • The team crossed streams and jumped across deep, narrow divides in the glacier.
    • Carrying light packs they left camp at daylight the next morning. Trails there were none; but they followed the general course of a small creek, crossed a divide, and dipped down into a beautifully timbered valley...
  5. The topographical boundary dividing two adjacent catchment basins, such as a ridge or a crest.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *d(w)is- Proto-Italic *dis- Latin dis- Proto-Indo-European *dwóh₁ Proto-Indo-European *dwi- Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁-der. Proto-Italic *wiðō Latin *vidō Latin dīvidōder. Middle English dividen English divide PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English dividen, from Latin dīvidere (“to divide”). Displaced native Old English tōdǣlan.

Forms

divides

Derived

cultural divide great divide

Verb

  1. To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
    • a wall divides two houses; a stream divides the towns
    • Divide the living child in two. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 3:25:

    Synonyms: cut up disunite partition split split up

    Antonyms: combine merge unify unite

  2. To share (something) by dividing it.
    • How shall we divide this pie?
    • true justice unto people to divide - 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 1:

    Synonyms: divvy up divide up share share out apportion

  3. To cause (a group of people) to disagree.
    • Words divide us, Wiktionary unites us.
    • For nearly two years, the pandemic has been dividing families over issues like social distancing, mask-wearing, and vaccines. Now that the holiday season is here and families are gathering, many issues that have been...
    • It is a debate that divides Americans as evenly as any of the great political issues of the day. Should they leave their butter on the counter, or must they keep it in the fridge? - 2023 April 29, Will Pavia, “Why...
  4. To calculate the number (the quotient) by which you must multiply one given number (the divisor) to produce a second given number (the dividend).
    • If you divide 6 by 3, you get 2.
    • I could add and subtract and multiply and divide, but I entered the wilderness when words became equations. - 2022 August 7, Alec Wilkinson, “Could learning algebra in my 60s make me smarter?”, in The Guardian, archived...

    Antonyms: multiply

  5. To be a divisor of.
    • 3 divides 6.
  6. To separate into two or more parts.

    Synonyms: separate shear split split up

  7. Of a cell, to reproduce by dividing.
    • [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these...
  8. To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
    • If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. - 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 3:24:
    • Every family became now divided within itself. - 1838, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: American...
  9. To break friendship; to fall out.
    • love cools, friendship / falls off, brothers divide. - 1605, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Lear, I. ii. 107:
  10. To have a share; to partake.
    • Make good this ostentation, and you shall / Divide in all with us. - 1608, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus, I. vi. 87:
  11. To vote, as in the British parliament and other legislatures, 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. - 1776–1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and...
  12. To mark divisions on; to graduate.
    • to divide a sextant

Forms

divides dividing divided no-table-tags glossary divide dividest dividedst divideth -

Synonyms

becut decide discerp disintegrate dispart dissever divide divorce divvy up part partition piecemeal rescind section sever split split up sunder

Antonyms

annex coalesce combine join merge unify unite

Hypernyms

disjoin

Hyponyms

cleave hack hew rend rive tear break fracture rupture shatter abscind carve chop cut up dissect incide slice belimb dislimb dismember segregate sequester sunder out disband

Related

division dividend divisor divisive fraction fraction slash ⁄ fraction bar vinculum ratio ∶ quotient remainder division sign obelus ÷ division slash ∕ long division symbol division bracket )‾ |‾ disconnect distribute

Derived

continental divide Continental Divide Delmar Divide digital divide dividability dividable divide and choose divide and conquer divide and rule Divide County divider divide the House divide up divvy up dividing engine divvy drainage divide misdivide overdivide redivide serodivide subdivide water divide