divide

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Latin dīvidō (“divide”)

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

divide (third-person singular simple present divides, present participle dividing, simple past and past participle divided)

  1. (transitive) To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
    a wall divides two houses; a stream divides the towns
    • Bible, 1 Kings iii. 25
      Divide the living child in two.
  2. (transitive) To share (something) by dividing it.
    How shall we divide this pie?
    • Spenser
      true justice unto people to divide
  3. (transitive, arithmetic) To calculate the number (the quotient) by which you must multiply one given number (the divisor) to produce a second given number (the dividend).
    If you divide 6 by 3, you get 2.
  4. (transitive, arithmetic) To be a divisor of.
    3 divides 6.
  5. (intransitive) To separate into two or more parts.
  6. (intransitive, biology) Of a cell, to reproduce by dividing.
    • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, The Economist, volume 408, number 8845: 
      [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying.
  7. To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
    • Bible, Mark iii. 24
      If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
    • Prescott
      Every family became now divided within itself.
  8. (obsolete) To break friendship; to fall out.
  9. (obsolete) To have a share; to partake.
  10. 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.
    • Gibbon
      The emperors sat, voted, and divided with their equals.
  11. To mark divisions on; to graduate.
    to divide a sextant
  12. (music) To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Synonyms[edit]

Antonyms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

See also[edit]

Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

divide (plural divides)

  1. A thing that divides.
    Stay on your side of the divide, please.
  2. An act of dividing.
    The divide left most of the good land on my share of the property.
  3. A distancing between two people or things.
    There is a great divide between us.
  4. (geography) A large chasm, gorge, or ravine between two areas of land.
    If you're heading to the coast, you'll have to cross the divide first.

Italian[edit]

Verb[edit]

divide

  1. third-person singular present indicative of dividere

Latin[edit]

Verb[edit]

dīvide

  1. second-person singular present active imperative of dīvidō

Portuguese[edit]

Verb[edit]

divide

  1. Second-person singular (tu) affirmative imperative of dividir
  2. Third-person singular (ele, ela, also used with tu and você?) present indicative of dividir

Spanish[edit]

Verb[edit]

divide

  1. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present indicative form of dividir.
  2. Informal second-person singular (tú) affirmative imperative form of dividir.
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