divorce

Etymology

From Old French divorce, from Latin dīvortium, from dīvertere (“to turn aside”), from dī- (“apart”) + vertere (“to turn”); see verse.

noun

1. The legal dissolution of a marriage.
   Richard obtained a divorce from his wife some years ago, but hasn't returned to the dating scene.
2. A separation of connected things.
   The Civil War split between Virginia and West Virginia was a divorce based along cultural and economic as well as geographic lines.
   The great trick of online retail has been to get us to do more shopping while thinking less about it – thinking less, in particular, about how our purchases reach our homes. This divorce of a product from its voyage to us is perhaps the thing that Amazon has sold us most successfully November 21 2019, Samanth Subramanian, “How our home delivery habit reshaped the world”, in The Guardian
   To make divorce of their incorporate league c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 5, scene 2
3. (zoology) The separation of a bonded pair of animals.
4. (obsolete) That which separates.
   Go with me like good angels to my end; / And as the long divorce of steel falls on me, / Make of your prayers one sweet sacrifice, / And lift my soul to heaven. Lead on, o' God's name. c. 1613, William Shakespeare, John Fletcher, Henry VIII, act 2, scene 1

verb

1. (transitive) To legally dissolve a marriage between two people.
   A ship captain can marry couples, but cannot divorce them.
2. (transitive) To end one's own marriage to (a person) in this way.
   Lucy divorced Steve when she discovered that he had been unfaithful.
3. (intransitive) To obtain a legal divorce.
   Edna and Simon divorced last year; he got the house, and she retained the business.
4. (transitive) To separate something that was connected.
   The radical group voted to divorce itself from the main faction and start an independent movement.