devest

English

Etymology

From Middle French devester (“strip of possessions”), from Old French desvestir, from des- (“dis-”) + vestir (“to clothe”).

Verb

devest (third-person singular simple present devests, present participle devesting, simple past and past participle devested)

1. To divest; to undress.
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

     Devesting them for bed

2. (law, transitive) To take away, as an authority, title, etc., to deprive; to alienate, as an estate.
3. (law, intransitive) To be taken away, lost, or alienated, as a title or an estate.

Derived terms

• divest

Further reading

• “devest”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• steved, vested

Serbo-Croatian

Numeral

devest (Cyrillic spelling девест)

1. (colloquial) ninety

   Synonym: (Standard) devedeset