Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To separate into parts, sections, groups, or branches: synonym: separate.
  • intransitive verb To form a border or barrier between.
  • intransitive verb To sector into units of measurement; graduate.
  • intransitive verb To group according to kind; classify or assign.
  • intransitive verb To cause to separate into opposing factions; disunite.
  • intransitive verb To cause (members of a parliament) to vote by separating into groups, as pro and con.
  • intransitive verb To give out or apportion among a number: synonym: distribute.
  • intransitive verb To subject (a number) to the process of division.
  • intransitive verb To be a divisor of.
  • intransitive verb To use (a number) as a divisor.
  • intransitive verb To become separated into parts.
  • intransitive verb To branch out, as a river or a blood vessel.
  • intransitive verb To form into factions; take sides.
  • intransitive verb To vote by dividing.
  • intransitive verb Mathematics To perform the operation of division.
  • intransitive verb Biology To undergo cell division.
  • noun A dividing point or line.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In billiards, to divide balls (mentally) into sixteenths, eighths, quarters, halves, and three quarters of their diameters, in order to insure certain deviations.
  • noun In physical geography, a water-shed; the height of land which separates one drainage-basin or area of catchment from another; often, but not always, a ridge or conspicuous elevation.
  • noun The act of dividing; a division or partition, as of winnings or gains of any kind: as, a fair divide.
  • To separate into parts or pieces; sunder, as a whole into parts; cleave: as, to divide an apple.
  • To separate; disjoin; dispart; sever the union or connection of, as things joined in any way, or made up of separate parts: as, to divide soul and body; to divide an army.
  • In mathematics: To perform the operation of division on.
  • To be a divisor of, without leaving a remainder: as, “7 divides 21.”
  • To cause to be separate; part by any means of disjunction, real or imaginary; make or keep distinct: as, the equator divides the earth into two hemispheres.
  • To make partition of; distribute; share: as, to divide profits among shareholders, between partners, or with workmen.
  • To mark off into parts; make divisions on; graduate: as, to divide a sextant, a rule, etc.
  • To disunite or cause to disagree in opinion or interest; make discordant.
  • To embarrass by indecision; cause to hesitate or fluctuate between different motives or opinions.
  • In music, to perform, as a melody, especially with variations or divisions.
  • In logic: To separate (in thought or speech) into parts any of the kinds of whole recognized by logic: as, to divide a conception into its elements (species into genus and difference), an essential whole into matter and form, or an integral whole into its integrate parts.
  • Especially, to separate (a genus) into its species.
  • To expound; explain.
  • Synonyms To sever, sunder, bar apart, divorce.
  • To allot, apportion, deal out, parcel out.
  • To become separated into parts; come or go apart; be disunited.
  • To vote by division. See division, 1 .
  • To come to an issue; agree as to what are the precise points in dispute, or some of them.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To part asunder (a whole); to sever into two or more parts or pieces; to sunder; to separate into parts.
  • transitive verb To cause to be separate; to keep apart by a partition, or by an imaginary line or limit
  • transitive verb 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.
  • transitive verb To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
  • transitive verb To separate into two parts, in order to ascertain the votes for and against a measure.
  • transitive verb (Math.) To subject to arithmetical division.
  • transitive verb (Logic) To separate into species; -- said of a genus or generic term.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English dividen, from Latin dīvidere : dī-, dis-, dis- + -videre, to separate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin dīvidō ("divide")

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