divorce
verbEtymology Derived from Old French divorce, from Latin dīvortium, from dīvertere (“to turn aside”), from dī- (“apart”) + vertere (“to turn”); see verse.
1
To legally dissolve a marriage between two people.
- A ship captain can marry couples, but cannot divorce them.
- As Fire Island’s reputation grew, so did the fame of its residents. In 1977, after divorcing his first wife, Calvin Klein bought one of Gifford’s beachfront homes.2025 June 11, Oliver Wainwright, “‘Made for sex’: the hedonistic party palaces of New York’s Fire Island – and the blond bombshell who made them”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 25 Aug 2025:
2
To end one's own marriage to (a person) in this way.
- Lucy divorced Steve when she discovered that he had been unfaithful.
3
To obtain a legal divorce.
- Edna and Simon divorced last year; he got the house, and she retained the business.
4
To separate something that was connected.
- The radical group voted to divorce itself from the main faction and start an independent movement.
- He is knight dubb'd with vnhatche'd Rapier, and on carpet conſideration, but he is a diuell in priuate brall, soules and bodies hath he diuorc'd three, and his incenſement at this moment is ſo implacable, that ſatisfaction can be none, but by pangs of death and ſepulcher: Hob, nob, is his word: giu't or take't.c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv], page 269:
- Synonyms
- split up, disassociate, disjoint, dissociate, disunite, separate
- Antonyms
- marry
- Derived terms
- divorceable, divorcee, divorcer, divorcible, divorcive, innocently divorced, nondivorcing, redivorce, undivorce