Divest

verb

verb ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To strip, deprive, or dispossess (someone) of something (such as a right, passion, privilege, or prejudice). transitive

    "You shall never divest me of my right to free speech."

  2. 2
    remove (someone's or one's own) clothes wordnet
  3. 3
    To sell off or be rid of through sale, especially of a subsidiary. transitive

    "In 2011, the company divested an 81% majority stake in its foreign subsidiary."

  4. 4
    reduce or dispose of; cease to hold (an investment) wordnet
  5. 5
    To undress. archaic, transitive

    "Having divested the child he kissed her gently and gave her a little pat to make her stand off."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    take away possessions from someone wordnet
  2. 7
    deprive of status or authority wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
deprivedeprivestripundressabridgebankrupt

Example

More examples

"The Board of Trustees voted to divest the organization's overseas holdings."

Etymology

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

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