To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
a wall divides two houses; a stream divides the towns
Divide the living child in two.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 3:25:
2
To separate into two or more parts.
3
To share (something) by dividing it.
How shall we divide this pie?
true justice unto people to divide1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 1:
4
To cause (a group of people) to disagree.
Words divide us; Wiktionary unites us.
For nearly two years, the pandemic has been dividing families over issues like social distancing, mask-wearing, and vaccines. Now that the holiday season is here and families are gathering, many issues that have been simmering are reaching a boiling point.2021 December 15, “Has the Pandemic Torn Your Family Apart?”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Dec 2022:
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It is a debate that divides Americans as evenly as any of the great political issues of the day. Should they leave their butter on the counter, or must they keep it in the fridge?2023 April 29, Will Pavia, “Why butter must come out of the fridge”, in The Times, London: News UK, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Apr 2023:
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ArithmeticWith by To calculate the quotient number by which another one (the divisor) is multiplied to produce a second number (the dividend).
If you divide 6 by 3, you get 2.
I could add and subtract and multiply and divide, but I entered the wilderness when words became equations.2022 August 7, Alec Wilkinson, “Could learning algebra in my 60s make me smarter?”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2023:
Biology, Cytology, Medicine, Natural sciences, SciencesOf a cell To reproduce by either mitosis or meiosis.
[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying.2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
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To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Mark 3:24:
Every family became now divided within itself.1838, William H[ickling] Prescott, History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the Catholic. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Boston, Mass.: American Stationers’ Company; John B. Russell, →OCLC:
Make good this ostentation, and you shall / Divide in all with us.1608, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus, I. vi. 87:
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To vote, as in the British parliament and other legislatures, by the members separating themselves into two parties (as on opposite sides of the hall or in opposite lobbies), that is, the ayes dividing from the nays.
Parliamentary jargon
The debates were conducted with decent freedom; and the emperors themselves, who gloried in the name of senators, sat, voted, and divided with their equals.1776, Edward Gibbon, “Chapter III: The Constitution In The Age Of The Antonines.—Part I.”, in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume I, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, page 69:
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To split (something) into regular steps or intervals; to mark with degrees; to graduate.
to divide a sextant
13
Entertainment, Lifestyle, Music To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations.
About the bed sweet musicke did divide1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
Etymology PIE word *dwóh₁ From Middle English dividen, from Latin dīvidere (“to divide”). Displaced native Old English tōdǣlan.
1
A thing that divides.
Stay on your side of the divide, please.
2
An act of dividing.
The divide left most of the good land on my share of the property.
The extended instruction set may double the speed again if a lot of multiplies and divides are done.1975, Byte, numbers 1-8, page 14:
3
A distancing between two people or things.
There is a great divide between us.
Republicans and Democrats interpret individualism differently, and those divides are more pronounced than ever in our deeply polarized political climate.2020 May 19, Scottie Andrew, “America’s response to the coronavirus is the most American thing ever”, in CNN, archived from the original on 29 Jul 2020:
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Geography, Natural sciences A large chasm, gorge, or ravine between two areas of land.
If you're heading to the coast, you'll have to cross the divide first.
The team crossed streams and jumped across deep, narrow divides in the glacier.
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Carrying light packs they left camp at daylight the next morning. Trails there were none; but they followed the general course of a small creek, crossed a divide, and dipped down into a beautifully timbered valley watered by a swift, large creek of almost riverlike dimensions.1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate:
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Geography, Hydrology, Natural sciences The topographical boundary dividing two adjacent catchment basins, such as a ridge or a crest.