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The vest in divest is a close relation of the kind found in closets—its origin is Latin vestis meaning “clothing, garment.” (Vest has the same source and first appeared in English as a verb in the 15th century meaning “to put on garments or vestments.”) Divest today mostly appears in legal and business contexts about a formal removal or loss of something of value; assets that are divested are sold or given away; someone divested of a right officially loses that right. The word’s first late 16th century use, however, was more intimately related to its roots: divest was then used to mean “to undress or strip especially of clothing, ornament, or equipment.” But broader application of divest soon followed. In Shakespeare’s Henry V, the French King Charles is told via messenger that England’s King Henry “wills you, in the name of God Almighty, / That you divest yourself, and lay apart / ... the crown / And all wide-stretched honours that pertain ...”
Examples of divest in a Sentence
Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 4 Nov. 2024
In the fourth quarter of 2021, Hanesbrands had reached the decision to divest its U.S. sheer hosiery business, including the L’eggs brand, as part of its strategy to streamline its portfolio.
—Lisa Lockwood, WWD, 30 Oct. 2024
Nationwide campus protests calling for a ceasefire and for the U.S. to divest from Israel have centered in D.C. at George Washington University, where students from multiple colleges and universities set up an encampment last spring.
—Anna Spiegel, Axios, 3 Oct. 2024
For the past year, Cornell University PhD student Momodou Taal, 30, has taken part in various pro-Palestine demonstrations on campus, with many calling for the school to divest from weapons manufacturers selling products to Israel during its bombardment of Gaza (and now Lebanon).
—Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 26 Sep. 2024
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Cite this Entry
“Divest.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divest. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
divest
verb
Legal Definition
divest
transitive verb
Anglo-French devestir, literally, to undress, from Old French desvestir, from de(s)-, prefix marking reversal + vestir to dress, from Latin vestire
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