divide

Formsdivides, dividing, divided

Pluraldivides

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To separate something so that it forms two or more parts or sections.

   Engineers divide the project into manageable phases.

   The fence divides the property into two sections.

   Similarsplit, partition, disunite

   Oppositeunite, combine, merge, unify

   Note

   The core physical sense, and the one closest to the Latin: dīvidere came into Middle English as dividen and pushed aside the native Old English tōdǣlan. The King James Bible of 1611 uses it in a command, "Divide the living child in two," with in two naming the result. The object can be the thing cut, or, with walls and streams, the things kept apart. Its opposites are unite, combine and merge.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To break apart into two or more separate parts.

   The trail divides at the summit.

   Rivers divide into many channels as they near the sea.

   Similarseparate, split

   Oppositemerge, join, converge

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To share something out by splitting it into portions.

   They divided the prize money equally between the two winners.

   The siblings divide household chores fairly each week.

   Similarshare, apportion

   Oppositecombine, pool

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To find the quotient: how many times one number is contained in another.

   When you divide 144 by 12, the quotient is 12.

   The student divided the larger figure by the divisor and checked the result.

   Oppositemultiply

   Note

   Arithmetic's version takes by: you divide the dividend by the divisor, so in "divide 6 by 3" the number being split comes first and the answer is 2. Reversing the order changes the result. Multiply is its inverse, and multiplying the quotient by the divisor gives back the dividend. It is distinct from the 'is a factor of' use, which needs no by at all.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To set the members of a group against one another in opinion.

   The controversial ruling divided public opinion sharply.

   Issues like this divide voters along generational lines.

   Similarsplit, polarize

   Oppositeunite, unify

   Note

   Disagreement is the effect here, and the subject is often the issue itself rather than a person: a pandemic divides families, and in Will Pavia's 2023 piece in The Times, a debate about butter divides Americans. The point of contention follows over, as in dividing families over mask-wearing and vaccines. Unlike the older 'set at variance' sense, it asks only for disagreement, not hostility.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A widening separation or gap between two people or things.

   The cultural divide between the generations seemed impossible to bridge.

   A growing divide separated the party's two factions.

   Similargap, gulf, rift, split, chasm

   Note

   The gap of feeling or outlook, usually followed by between and often paired with great: "There is a great divide between us." It belongs to people and groups more than to places. It is the figurative heir of the land-splitting chasm, so it is a distance you describe as widening or bridged, not one you cross on foot.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To set people at odds, making them hostile or discordant in opinion or interest.

   Long-standing rivalries divided the council into hostile blocs.

   Petty jealousies divide otherwise loyal companions.

   Similarsplit, alienate, estrange, polarize, separate

   Oppositeunite, unify, reconcile

   Note

   The harder cousin of the 'cause to disagree' sense: here division means hostility, not just a difference of view. It favors the passive with a reflexive frame. The King James Bible of 1611 has a kingdom divided against itself, and William Hickling Prescott's History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella (1838) has every family divided within itself. Against stresses conflict; within stresses a split from inside.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A ridge or crest forming the boundary between two adjacent drainage basins.

   The continental divide runs along the spine of the Rocky Mountains.

   Water on either side of the divide drains into separate watersheds.

   Similarwatershed, ridge

   Note

   The hydrologist's sense turns the word uphill: the divide is high ground, a ridge or crest, not a gap. Rain falling on one slope ends up in one catchment basin, and rain on the other slope in its neighbor, so the line decides where water goes. Keep the terms apart: the boundary is the divide, and the land draining to each side is the basin.

9. 9
   nouncountable

   A large chasm, gorge, or ravine separating two stretches of land.

   The trail ended abruptly at a yawning divide too wide to cross.

   Erosion over millennia had cut a dramatic divide through the plateau.

   Similarchasm, gorge, ravine, canyon, gulf

   Note

   In geography the word names the obstacle between two stretches of land, and its regular verb is cross: you cross the divide to reach the coast, or jump narrow divides in a glacier. In A. M. Chisholm's A Thousand a Plate (1922), a party crosses a divide and then dips down into a valley. That shows how easily the word slides toward the ridge between drainage basins.

10. 10
    verbintransitive

    Of a cell, to reproduce by splitting into two or more new cells.

    Stem cells divide rapidly during the early stages of development.

    Bacteria can divide every twenty minutes under ideal conditions.

    Similarsplit, multiply, reproduce

    Note

    Biology's sense is intransitive: the cell itself divides, and nothing is divided by anyone. Splitting and reproducing are one event here, as a single cell becomes daughter cells through the mitotic or meiotic cycle. Bacteria are typical subjects, and a cell described as dividing is one caught in the act of multiplying.

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