divide Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a serious disagreement between two groups of people (typically producing tension or hostility)
  2. noun a ridge of land that separates two adjacent river systems
    water parting; watershed.
  3. verb separate into parts or portions
    separate; split up; split; carve up; dissever.
    • divide the cake into three equal parts
    • The British carved up the Ottoman Empire after World War I
  4. verb perform a division
    fraction.
    • Can you divide 49 by seven?
  5. verb act as a barrier between; stand between
    separate.
    • The mountain range divides the two countries
  6. verb come apart
    part; separate.
    • The two pieces that we had glued separated
  7. verb make a division or separation
    separate.
  8. verb force, take, or pull apart
    part; disunite; separate.
    • He separated the fighting children
    • Moses parted the Red Sea

WordNet

Di*vide" transitive verb
Etymology
L. dividere, divisum; di- = dis- + root signifying to part; cf. Skr. vyadh to pierce; perh. akin to L. vidua widow, and E. widow. Cf. Device, Devise.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Divided; present participle & verbal noun Dividing
Definitions
  1. To part asunder (a whole); to sever into two or more parts or pieces; to sunder; to separate into parts.
    Divide the living child in two. 1 Kings iii. 25.
  2. To cause to be separate; to keep apart by a partition, or by an imaginary line or limit; as, a wall divides two houses; a stream divides the towns.
    Let it divide the waters from the waters. Gen. i. 6.
  3. To make partition of among a number; to apportion, as profits of stock among proprietors; to give in shares; to distribute; to mete out; to share.
    True justice unto people to divide. Spenser.
    Ye shall divide the land by lot. Num. xxxiii. 54.
  4. To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
    If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom can not stand. Mark iii. 24.
    Every family became now divided within itself. Prescott.
  5. To separate into two parts, in order to ascertain the votes for and against a measure; as, to divide a legislative house upon a question.
  6. (Math.) To subject to arithmetical division.
  7. (Logic) To separate into species; -- said of a genus or generic term.
  8. (Mech.) To mark divisions on; to graduate; as, to divide a sextant.
  9. (Music) To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations. Obs. Spenser. Syn. -- To sever; dissever; sunder; cleave; disjoin; disunite; detach; disconnect; part; distribute; share.
Di*vide" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To be separated; to part; to open; to go asunder. Milton.
    The Indo-Germanic family divides into three groups. J. Peile.
  2. To cause separation; to disunite.
    A gulf, a strait, the sea intervening between islands, divide less than the matted forest. Bancroft.
  3. To break friendship; to fall out. Shak.
  4. To have a share; to partake. Shak.
  5. To vote, as in the British Parliament, 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. Gibbon.
Di*vide" noun
Definitions
  1. A dividing ridge of land between the tributaries of two streams; a watershed.

Webster 1913