Word.ws English Dictionary

divise

divise is the obsolete form of devise.

Meaning of devise

Verb

devise (third-person singular simple present devises, present participle devising, simple past and past participle devised)

  1. (transitive) To use one’s intellect to plan or design (something).
    • Near-synonyms: lay, set, design, plan, create
    Synonyms:
    lay, set, design, plan, create
  2. (transitive) To leave (property) in a will.
  3. (archaic, intransitive) To form a scheme; to lay a plan; to contrive; to consider.
    • I thought, devised, and Pallas heard my prayer.1725, Homer, “Book IX”, in [William Broome], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume II, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC
  4. (archaic, transitive) To plan or scheme for; to plot to obtain.
    • For wisedome is most riches; fooles therefore / They are, which fortunes doe by vowes deuize,1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 30
  5. (obsolete) To imagine; to guess.
    • I do protest I neuer iniur’d thee,
      But lou’d thee better then thou can’st deuise:
      Till thou shalt know the reason of my loue.c. 1591–1595 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Romeo and Ivliet”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

See all 9 meanings of devise

Forms of divise

third-person singular presentdivises
present participledivising
past participledivised
pastdivised

Questions about divise

What is divise the obsolete form of?
Divise is the obsolete form of devise.

Words near divise in the dictionary

  1. DiVirgilio
  2. DiVirgilios
  3. divis
  4. divisable
  5. Divisaderan
  6. divise
  7. diviseth
  8. divisi
  9. divisibilism
  10. divisibilist
  11. divisibilists

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: divise (page history and authors); devise (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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Cite this entry: “divise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/divise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.