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Definition
separate something from a person or firm — such as to sell, or take, or remove- The company divest itself of its South African holdings
- he was divested of his rights and his title
- She divested herself of her outdoor clothes
- Our proclivity to details cannot quite degrade our life and divest it of poetry.Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essays, Second Series
- It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.Henry David Thoreau
- Slavery soon proved its ability to divest her of these heavenly qualities.Douglass, Frederick -- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass An American Slave
- Traddles had to indicate that I was Mr. Copperfield, and I had to lay claim to myself, and they had to divest themselves of a preconceived opinion that Traddles was Mr. Copperfield...Dickens, Charles -- David Copperfield
- ...proceeded to divest himself of his Turkish garments, and invest himself with Christian attire.Dickens, Charles -- Our Mutual Friend
- That you divest yourself, and lay apartShakespeare -- King Henry V
- James had reappeared; he had divested himself of his trunk, owl, and trolley, and was evidently bursting with news.J.K. Rowling -- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
- Behind that fact are phenomena which certainly deserve careful study, and, above all, study divested of unintelligent prejudice.Henry L. Mencken -- The American Language
- Divested of all the softer properties of womanhood, the Matron is peculiarly sinister figure in her severe dress.Tennessee Williams -- A Streetcar Named Desire
- Freeman's Journal Loan (Stephen Dedalus) L. s. d. 0—4—9 1—7—6 1—7—0 2-19—3 Did the process of divestiture continue?James Joyce -- Ulysses
- What great crime have we committed, whereby we must forever be divested of our country and rights?Alexis de Toqueville -- Democracy In America, Volume 1
- Except that I'd discovered that I was eager to divest myself of the gods' attention as quickly as possible.Megan Whalen Turner -- The Thief
- Thus I divest myself of my authority.Virginia Woolf -- The Waves
- Mr Dowling was indeed very greatly affected with this relation; for he had not divested himself of humanity by being an attorney.Henry Fielding -- Tom Jones
- They entered the lobby already swarming with patrons, and then, after divesting themselves of their wraps, went into a sumptuous dining-room.Theodore Dreiser -- Sister Carrie
- Slaves are people debased by servitude below the equal level of free people; the Constitution regards the slave as divested of 2/5 of the man.Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, & John Jay -- The Federalist Papers — Modern English Edition 2
- And what preps Milkman for this change is a steady process of divestiture.Thomas C. Foster -- How to Read Literature Like a Professor