DIVEST

divest, disinvest

(verb) 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 university to disinvest in South Africa”

deprive, strip, divest

(verb) take away possessions from someone; “The Nazis stripped the Jews of all their assets”

divest, disinvest

(verb) deprive of status or authority; “he was divested of his rights and his title”; “They disinvested themselves of their rights”

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology

Verb

divest (third-person singular simple present divests, present participle divesting, simple past and past participle divested)

(transitive) To strip, deprive, or dispossess (someone) of something (such as a right, passion, privilege, or prejudice).

Synonyms: deprive, dispossess

(transitive, finance) To sell off or be rid of through sale, especially of a subsidiary.

Synonym: sell off

Antonym: invest

(transitive, archaic) To undress.

Synonyms: undress, disrobe

Antonym: dress

Usage notes

In sense "sell off", stronger than related disinvest, which instead means "reduce or cease new investment".

Anagrams

• divets, stived

Source: Wiktionary


Di*vest", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Divested; p. pr. & vb. n. Divesting.] Etym: [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.]

1. To unclothe; to strip, as of clothes, arms, or equipage; -- opposed to invest.

2. 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.

3. (Law)

Definition: See Devest. Mozley & W.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



RESET




Word of the Day

23 November 2024

THEORETICAL

(adjective) concerned primarily with theories or hypotheses rather than practical considerations; “theoretical science”


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Coffee Trivia

An article published in Harvard Men’s Health Watch in 2012 shows heavy coffee drinkers live longer. The researchers examined data from 400,000 people and found out that men who drank six or more coffee cups per day had a 10% lower death rate.

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