English
divine
see also: Divine
Pronunciation
  • enPR: dĭ-vīnʹ, IPA: /dɪˈvaɪn/
Etymology 1

From , from , from divus ("god").

Adjective

divine

  1. Of or pertaining to a god.
    Synonyms: deific, godlike, godly
    Antonyms: undivine, ungodly
  2. Eternal, holy, or otherwise godlike.
    Synonyms: hallowed, holy, sacred
    Antonyms: godless, secular, ungodly
  3. Of superhuman or surpassing excellence.
    Synonyms: supreme, ultimate
    Antonyms: humdrum, mediocre, ordinary
  4. Beautiful, heavenly.
    Synonyms: beautiful, delightful, exquisite, heavenly, lovely, magnificent, marvellous/marvelous, splendid, wonderful
    Antonyms: horrible, horrid, nasty, unpleasant
  5. (obsolete) Foreboding; prescient.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:
      Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill, / Misgave him.
  6. (obsolete, of souls) immortal; elect or saved after death
    • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i], page 23 ↗, column 1:
      Now Thomas Mowbray do I turne to thee,
      And marke my greeting well: for what I ſpeake,
      My body ſhall make good vpon this earth,
      Or my diuine ſoule anſwer it in heauen.
    • 1632, Thomas Heywood, The Iron Age, Part 2:
      (Of that at leaſure) but the bloody ſtage
      On which to act, Generall this night is thine,
      Thou lyeſt downe mortall, who muſt riſe diuine.
  7. Relating to divinity or theology.
    • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
      church history and other divine learning
Translations Translations Translations Translations Noun

divine (plural divines)

  1. One skilled in divinity; a theologian.
    • 1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning:
      Poets were the first divines.
  2. A minister of the gospel; a priest; a clergyman.
    • December 22, 1820, John Woodbridge, Sermon preached in Hadley in commemoration of the landing our fathers at Plymouth
      The first divines of New England […] were surpassed by none in extensive erudition.
  3. (often capitalized, with 'the') God or a god, particularly in its aspect as a transcendental concept.
Synonyms Translations Etymology 2

Replaced Middle English devine, devin from Middle French deviner, from Latin dīvīnō.

Verb

divine (divines, present participle divining; simple past and past participle divined)

  1. (transitive) To foretell (something), especially by the use of divination.
    • 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC ↗:
      a sagacity which divined the evil designs
    • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iv]:
      Darest thou […] divine his downfall?
  2. (transitive) To guess or discover (something) through intuition or insight.
    • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night:
      no secret can be told
      To any who divined it not before
    • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 43”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC ↗:
      If in the loneliness of his studio he wrestled desperately with the Angel of the Lord he never allowed a soul to divine his anguish.
    • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, 250c:
      I suppose that we truly are divining that what is is some third thing when we say that change and stability are.
  3. (transitive) To search for (underground objects or water) using a divining rod.
  4. To render divine; to deify.
    • 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Vertuous Douglas Howard,Daughter and Heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and Wife of Arthure Gorges Esquier. […], London: […] [Thomas Orwin] for William Ponsonby, […], →OCLC ↗:
      Living on earth like angel new divined.
Related terms
  • a lo divino (cf. a lo divino)
  • baculus divinatorius
  • Divinópolis de Goiás
  • La Divina (Maria Callas)
  • lectio divina
  • Liposcelis divinatorius
  • Salvia divinorum
  • São José do Divino
  • virgula divina
  • voce divinare
Translations Translations
Divine
Proper noun
  1. Surname.
Adjective

divine

  1. Alternative case form of divine.
    • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter II, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume II, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC ↗, page 23 ↗:
      My mind was never in a holier frame, than while I gazed on that untroubled image of Divine rest.


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