All 4 Uses of
divine
in
Typical American, by Gish Jen
- Not that he'd recognized its divinity at first — not in this flat rectangle wrapped in checkerboard paper; its attached clump of gray ribbon curlicues looked like the head of a mop.†
Chpt 2.13divinity = the state of being god-like; or of being a god
- He recited from Norman Vincent Peale, " 'I believe I am always divinely guided. I believe I will always take the right turn of the road.' "
Chpt 4.28 *divinely = of God
- Ralph had risen from the couch, and three days later, a divine gift.†
Chpt 2.13
- Love floated above their marriage, unachievable, divine.†
Chpt 5.46
Definitions:
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(1)
(divine as in: to forgive is divine) wonderful; or god-like or coming from God
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(2)
(divine as in: divined from tea leaves) to predict or discover something supernaturally (as if by magic)
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(3)
(divine as in: divined through intuition) to discover or guess something -- usually through intuition or reflection
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(4)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) In the time of Shakespeare, divine was sometimes used as a noun to reference a priest or a person of the church. (To remember that sense, think of the clergyman as having come from God).
Divinity typically refers to a god or to a school of religion, but on rare occasions, it refers to the name of a kind of soft white candy. To remember that sense, you might think of it as tasting divine/wonderful.