Word.ws English Dictionary

diverb

diverb noun: a proverb or set phrase.

Noun

diverb (plural diverbs)

  1. (obsolete) A proverb or set phrase.
    • By this means you many define ex ungue leonem, as the diverb is, by his thumb alone the bigness of Hercules […]1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II...
  2. (obsolete, rhetoric) An antithesis.
    • Italy, a paradise for horses, a hell for women, as the diverb goes.1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC

Forms of diverb

pluraldiverbs

Origin of diverb

Latin diverbium (“the colloquial part of a comedy, dialogue”).

Questions about diverb

What does diverb mean?
Diverb means a proverb or set phrase.
What part of speech is diverb?
Diverb is a noun.
What is the plural of diverb?
The plural of diverb is diverbs.

Words near diverb in the dictionary

  1. diven
  2. Divens
  3. Divenses
  4. divent
  5. diver
  6. diverb
  7. diverbs
  8. divercin
  9. diverge
  10. diverged
  11. divergement

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: diverb (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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