divorced

1. 1
   adjective

   No longer married, having had one's marriage formally dissolved in law.

   As a divorced father, he sees his children every other weekend.

   She has been divorced for three years and is in no hurry to remarry.

   Oppositemarried

2. 2
   adjective

   Brought to a formal legal end, as a marriage or union dissolved by a court.

   The divorced marriage was dissolved by court order in the spring.

   Their legally divorced partnership released both parties from earlier vows.

   Similardissolved

   Note

   Here the thing divorced is the marriage, not the people in it. A marriage is divorced, while the former partners are described by the sense used of people, as in Mark's parents are divorced. With a marriage as its subject the construction can sound clinical, which suits statistical or legal writing. In ordinary prose, saying a marriage ended in divorce is usually the smoother choice.

3. 3
   adjective

   Separated or cut off from something, as if no longer connected to it.

   The proposal seemed entirely divorced from economic reality.

   Her later paintings became divorced from any recognizable subject.

   Similardetached, disconnected, removed, separated, isolated

   Oppositeconnected, linked, attached

   Note

   Here the language of a broken marriage is carried over to ideas, policies and pursuits that have lost touch with what should ground them. The word almost always takes from (divorced from reality, divorced from what is needed) and pairs readily with intensifiers such as completely or entirely. Unlike the marital meaning, it is usually a criticism: to call a plan divorced from the facts is to say it should not be.

4. 4
   verb

   Simple past tense and past participle of divorce.

   The couple divorced quietly, avoiding any public attention.

   He had divorced his first wife long before they met.

   Note

   One spelling serves both the simple past and the participle, so had divorced and was divorced need no second form. The verb works in two ways. Transitively, someone divorced a spouse or a court divorced a couple. Intransitively, a couple simply divorced. Was divorced can be a passive event or the adjective of marital status. A following by or from usually shows it is the verb.

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