DIVEST • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Divest

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/daɪvˈɛst/ /dɪvˈɛst/ Listen

verb

Divest v. t. (past & past part. divested; pres. part. divesting)

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

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." "The tendency of the language to divest itself of its gutturals."

(Law) See Devest.

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Etymology of 'Divest'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Divest" Quotes from Famous Books

... follies, which were more strictly scrutinized than her crimes. Eugene was originally destined for the Church, and, according to a scandalous custom, then common in France as well as other Catholic countries, he obtained several benefices while but a child, of which he was eager to divest himself as soon as his mind was capable of discriminating between one profession and another. He seems soon to have felt within himself that ardent desire for military service, which is sometimes a caprice and some times an inspiration; but Louis XIV., ...

— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 2 of 8 • Various

... superstitious; but, shaken and clouded as my mind had been by the use of opium, I could not wholly divest it of fear when these phantoms beset me. Yet, on all other occasions, save that of their immediate presence, I found no difficulty in assigning their existence to a diseased state of the bodily organs, and a corresponding ...

— The Complete Works of Whittier - The Standard Library Edition with a linked Index • John Greenleaf Whittier

... adopt a scientific point of view in order to interpret the facts that reveal themselves in children when they are developed upon this system, and to divest oneself completely of the old scholastic conception according to which the progress of the child is assessed according to his proficiency in the various subjects of study. Here, almost like the naturalist, it is ...

— Spontaneous Activity in Education • Maria Montessori

... but his proud, fierce soul all poured itself out then, with hatred and self-loathing, blood on his hands and murder in his heart, though even then he could not be altogether other than a gentleman, or altogether divest himself of fascination, even when so tempestuously revealing the darkest points of his character. My soul dissolved in pity for his dark, lost, self-ruined life, as he left me and turned away in the blinding storm to the ...

— A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains • Isabella L. Bird

... matters? If, as she gathered, the sole reason of her father's visit to the Trents had been to assure himself of the true nature of her relations with Oliver—her cheeks burned as she put the matter in that light, even to herself—why, then, she could not possibly divest herself of responsibility. Of course she could not for one moment imagine that her father had lifted his hand against Oliver; but his visit to the house shortly before the murder gave a certain air of plausibility ...

— Brooke's Daughter - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

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