Crossword Dictionary
DIVIDe
divide, split, split up, separate, dissever, carve up - v
separate into parts or portions; "divide the cake into three equal parts"; "The British carved up the Ottoman Empire after World War I"
Synonyms
break, break down, carve, cut, isolate, partition, segregate, split, subdivide, tear, bisect, branch, chop, cleave, cross, demarcate, detach, dichotomize, disengage, disentangle, disjoin, dislocate, dismember, dissect, dissever, dissociate, dissolve, disunite, divorce, halve, intersect, loose, part, quarter, rend, rupture, section, segment, sever, shear, sunder, unbind, undo
Examples
While they were collecting troops in order to enforce their threats, John on his part tried to divide his enemies by a concession to the clerical section.
Throughout the Angiosperms the epidermis of the shoot originates from separate initials, which never divide tangentially, so that the young shoot is covered by a single layer of dividing cells, the dermatogen.
From the central peaks fifteen glaciers, all lying west of the main divide, descend to the north and south, the two largest being the Lewis and Gregory glaciers, each about 1 m.
Etymology
early 14c., "separate into parts or pieces," from Latin dividere "to force apart, cleave, distribute," from assimilated form of dis- "apart" (see dis-) + -videre "to separate," which, according to de Vaan, is from PIE *(d)uid- "to separate, distinguish" (source also of Sanskrit avidhat "allotted," Old Avestan vida- "to devote oneself to"). He writes: "The original PIE verb ... (which became thematic in Latin) meant 'to divide in two, separate'. It lost initial *d- through dissimilation in front of the next dental stop, and was reinforced by dis- in Latin ...." Also compare devise.