DIVEST

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does divest mean? 

• DIVEST (verb)
  The verb DIVEST has 4 senses:

1. take away possessions from someone

2. deprive of status or authority

3. reduce or dispose of; cease to hold (an investment)

4. remove (someone's or one's own) clothes

  Familiarity information: DIVEST used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIVEST (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they divest    ... he / she / it divests   
Past simple: divested   
Past participle: divested   
-ing form: divesting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Take away possessions from someone

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

deprive; divest; strip

Context example:

The Nazis stripped the Jews of all their assets

Hypernyms (to "divest" is one way to...):

take (take into one's possession)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "divest"):

disarm; unarm (take away the weapons from; render harmless)

expropriate (deprive of possessions)

clean (deprive wholly of money in a gambling game, robbery, etc.)

dispossess (deprive of the possession of real estate)

clean out (deprive completely of money or goods)

unclothe (strip)

unsex (deprive of sex or sexual powers)

orphan (deprive of parents)

bereave (deprive through death)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody of something

Sentence example:

They divest him of all his money

Derivation:

divestiture (an order to an offending party to rid itself of property; it has the purpose of depriving the defendant of the gains of wrongful behavior)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Deprive of status or authority

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

disinvest; divest

Context example:

They disinvested themselves of their rights

Hypernyms (to "divest" is one way to...):

discharge; free (free from obligations or duties)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "divest"):

dethrone (remove a monarch from the throne)

defrock; unfrock (divest of the frock; of church officials)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody of something

Antonym:

invest (provide with power and authority)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Reduce or dispose of; cease to hold (an investment)

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

disinvest; divest

Context example:

There was pressure on the university to disinvest in South Africa

Hypernyms (to "divest" is one way to...):

draw; draw off; take out; withdraw (remove (a commodity) from (a supply source))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Antonym:

invest (make an investment)

Derivation:

divestiture (the sale by a company of a product line or a subsidiary or a division)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Remove (someone's or one's own) clothes

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

disinvest; divest; strip; undress

Context example:

He disinvested himself of his garments

Hypernyms (to "divest" is one way to...):

remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)

Verb group:

discase; disrobe; peel; strip; strip down; uncase; unclothe; undress (get undressed)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

While he lived, it must be only an engagement; but she flattered herself, that if divested of the danger of drawing her away, it might become an increase of comfort to him.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Miss Abbot turned to divest a stout leg of the necessary ligature.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Traddles had to indicate that I was Mr. Copperfield, and I had to lay claim to myself, and they had to divest themselves of a preconceived opinion that Traddles was Mr. Copperfield, and altogether we were in a nice condition.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He drove so directly to the core of the matter, divesting a question always of all superfluous details, and with such an air of finality, that I seemed to find myself struggling in deep water, with no footing under me.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His shape, now divested of cloak, I perceived harmonised in squareness with his physiognomy: I suppose it was a good figure in the athletic sense of the term—broad chested and thin flanked, though neither tall nor graceful.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He accompanied me into Mr. Wickfield's room, which was the shadow of its former self—having been divested of a variety of conveniences, for the accommodation of the new partner—and stood before the fire, warming his back, and shaving his chin with his bony hand, while Mr. Wickfield and I exchanged greetings.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)