• (British) IPA: /dɪˈvaɪd/

divide (divides, present participle dividing; past and past participle divided)

1. (transitive) To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.

   a wall divides two houses; a stream divides the towns

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, 1 Kings 3:25 ↗:

     Divide the living child in two.

2. (transitive) To share (something) by dividing it.

   How shall we divide this pie?

   • true justice unto people to divide

3. (transitive, arithmetic, with by) To calculate the number (the quotient) by which you must multiply one given number (the divisor) to produce a second given number (the dividend).

   If you divide 6 by 3, you get 2.

4. (transitive, arithmetic) To be a divisor of.

   3 divides 6.

5. (intransitive) To separate into two or more parts.
6. (intransitive, biology) Of a cell, to reproduce by dividing.
7. To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981 ↗, Mark 3:24 ↗:

     If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.

   • Every family became now divided within itself.

8. (obsolete) To break friendship; to fall out.
9. (obsolete) To have a share; to partake.
10. 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 noes.

    • The emperors sat, voted, and divided with their equals.

11. To mark divisions on; to graduate.

    to divide a sextant

12. (music) To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations.

• (split into parts) cut up, disunite, partition, split, split up
• (share by dividing) divvy up, divide up, share, share out
• (separate into parts) separate, shear, split, split up

• (split into two or more parts) combine, merge, unify, unite
• (calculate times of multiplication) multiply

• (act of dividing) division
• (the sum being divided; the upper term in a fraction) dividend
• (the number of parts in a division; the lower term in a fraction) divisor

• French: diviser, fendre
• German: aufteilen, teilen, einteilen
• Italian: dividere
• Portuguese: dividir, separar
• Russian: дели́ть
• Spanish: desunir, dividir

• French: partager
• German: teilen
• Italian: dividere, spartire, spartirsi
• Portuguese: dividir, repartir
• Spanish: dividir, repartir

• French: diviser
• German: dividieren, teilen
• Italian: dividere
• Portuguese: dividir
• Russian: дели́ть
• Spanish: dividir

• French: se diviser
• Italian: dividersi
• Portuguese: dividir, separar, partir
• Spanish: desunir

• French: se diviser

divide (plural divides)

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.

   • 1975, Byte (issues 1-8, page 14)

     The extended instruction set may double the speed again if a lot of multiplies and divides are done.

3. A distancing between two people or things.

   There is a great divide between us.

4. (geography) 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.

   • 1922, A. M. Chisholm, A Thousand a Plate

     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.

5. (hydrology) The topographical boundary dividing two adjacent catchment basins, such as a ridge or a crest.

• German: Trennlinie, Abtrennung

• German: Teilung

• German: Kluft, Graben

• German: Kluft, Schlucht, Graben

• German: Wasserscheide