divest
UK/daɪˈvɛst/
divest verb: to strip, deprive, or dispossess (someone) of something (such as a right, passion, privilege, or prejudice).
Verb
divest (third-person singular simple present divests, present participle divesting, simple past and past participle divested)
- To strip, deprive, or dispossess (someone) of something (such as a right, passion, privilege, or prejudice).
- You shall never divest me of my right to free speech.
- When I wake up, I make a point to divest myself of all my prejudices, ready to start the day.
- Synonyms:
- deprive, dispossess
- To sell off or be rid of through sale, especially of a subsidiary.
- In 2011, the company divested an 81% majority stake in its foreign subsidiary.
- Glasgow will become the first university in Europe to divest from fossil fuels.
- To undress.
- Having divested the child he kissed her gently and gave her a little pat to make her stand off.1897, Henry James, What Maisie Knew
- Antonyms:
- dress
divest meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
divest in Urdu
- عہدہ گھٹانا
divest in Bengali
- অধিকার কেড়ে নেওয়া, বর্জন করা, বিনিয়োগ তুলে নেওয়া
divest in Malayalam
- ഇല്ലാതാക്കുക, അപഹരിക്കുക, നീക്കുക, വസ്ത്രമഴിക്കുക
divest in Kannada
- ಪದಚ್ಯುತಿಗೊಳಿಸು, ನಿವಾರಿಸು, ಕಳಚಿ ಹಾಕು, ತೆಗೆದು ಹಾಕು, ತಪ್ಪಿಸು, ಕಸಿದುಕೊಳ್ಳು
Examples of divest in a sentence
- The report divested the organization of its mystique.
- It is argued that from a fiscal point of view, governments should divest only if this leads to an improvement in the intertemporal budget constraint.2011, Alfred Schipke, Why Do Governments Divest?: The Macroeconomics of Privatization, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 6:
- Building from this argument, we can now turn to arguing the moral case why individuals should divest from fossil fuels.2018, Ravi Kanbur, Henry Shue, Climate Justice: Integrating Economics and Philosophy, Oxford University Press, USA, →ISBN, page 146:
Synonyms of divest
Antonyms
Forms of divest
| third-person singular present | divests |
|---|---|
| present participle | divesting |
| past participle | divested |
| past | divested |
Origin of divest
Alteration of devest, from Middle French devester (“strip of possessions”), from Old French desvestir, from des- (“dis-”) + vestir (“to clothe”).
Words formed from divest
Words that rhyme with divest
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- attest
- guest
- quest
- bequest
- distressed
- pest
- prest
- request
- revest
- west
- wrest
- zest
- contest
- depressed
- dressed
- gest
- impressed
- jest
- suggest
- acid test
- best
- celeste
- ingest
- molest
- North West
- northwest
- possessed
- pressed
- professed
- southwest
- -cest
- addressed
- behest
- compressed
- congest
- detest
- fest
- infest
- lest
- obsessed
- pretest
- processed
- repressed
- rest.
- stressed
- tressed
- unrest
- unstressed
Questions about divest
- What does divest mean?
- Divest means to strip, deprive, or dispossess (someone) of something (such as a right, passion, privilege, or prejudice).
- What is divest in Urdu?
- Divest in Urdu is عہدہ گھٹانا. See Divest meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use divest in a sentence?
- The report divested the organization of its mystique.
- What part of speech is divest?
- Divest is a verb.
- How do you pronounce divest?
- Divest is pronounced /daɪˈvɛst/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of divest?
- The past tense of divest is divested.
Words near divest in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: divest (page history and authors); divest (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Divest (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); divest (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); divest (Kannada Wiktionary) (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-divest.ogg.
Cite this entry: “divest.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/divest. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.