verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To divest; to undress.

   "Devesting them for bed"

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

Etymology

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

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.