Divest

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Divest \Di*vest"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Divested}; p. pr. & vb.
     n. {Divesting}.] [LL. divestire (di- = dis- + L. vestire to
     dress), equiv. to L. devestire. It is the same word as
     devest, but the latter is rarely used except as a technical
     term in law. See {Devest}, {Vest}.]
     1. To unclothe; to strip, as of clothes, arms, or equipage;


        -- opposed to {invest}.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Fig.: To strip; to deprive; to dispossess; as, to divest
        one of his rights or privileges; to divest one's self of
        prejudices, passions, etc.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Wretches divested of every moral feeling.
                                                    --Goldsmith.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The tendency of the language to divest itself of its
              gutturals.                            --Earle.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Law) See {Devest}. --Mozley & W.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  divest
       v 1: take away possessions from someone; "The Nazis stripped the
            Jews of all their assets" [syn: {deprive}, {strip}]
       2: deprive of status or authority; "he was divested of his
          rights and his title"; "They disinvested themselves of
          their rights" [syn: {disinvest}] [ant: {invest}]
       3: reduce or dispose of; cease to hold (an investment); "The
          company decided to divest"; "the board of trustees
          divested $20 million in real estate property"; "There was
          pressure on the univeristy to disinvest in South Africa"
          [syn: {disinvest}] [ant: {invest}]
       4: remove (someone's or one's own) clothes; "The nurse quickly
          undressed the accident victim"; "She divested herself of
          her outdoor clothes"; "He disinvested himself of his
          garments" [syn: {strip}, {undress}, {disinvest}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  62 Moby Thesaurus words for "divest":
     abridge, bankrupt, bare, bereave, bleed, bleed white, curtail,
     cut off, denudate, denude, deplume, deprive, deprive of, despoil,
     disencumber, disentitle, disinherit, dismantle, displume,
     dispossess, disrobe, doff, drain, dry, ease one of, exhaust,
     expose, flay, fleece, impoverish, lay bare, lay open,
     lighten one of, lose, milk, mine, mulct, oust, pick clean, pluck,
     plunder, put off, relieve, remove, rid, rob, shear, skin, spoil,
     strip, strip bare, suck dry, take away from, take from, take off,
     tap, uncloak, unclothe, uncover, undress, unsheathe, unveil