1706 
There is much In their nature, much in their social 
position which gives them a certain power of divmatton. 
And women know at first sight the characters of those 
with whom they converse. Emerson, Woman. 
divider 
nut, used for dividing lines, describing circles, 
etc. ; compasses in general. See compass, 8. 
6. An attachment to a harvester for separating 
the swath of grain on the point of being cut g_ j n aMC _ jf om . ia W : (a) A transaction in a 
from the portion left standing. 6. pi. In cr 'i m i na i suit, in which one of several accu- 
mining, same as buntons Bisecting dividers, sers o f one and the same person was chosen as 
dividers having the legs pivoted in such a way that the ^ f proseoutor j n the case, the others 
distance between one set of points shall .always be half subscribers (b) The 
of the distance between another set of points.- Propor- joining m it only as SUDS ,rs. (O) 1 a meuiugiau: as, a ; 
tional dividers, dividers with a sliding pivot, so that the speech or oration asking authority to nil sucfi t - f g t j h ^ 
divineness 
II. n. [< ME. divine, devine, devyn, a sooth- 
,yer, theologian, < OF. devin, a soothsayer, 
theologian, F. devin, a soothsayer (cf. Sp. adi- 
vino = Pg. adevinho, a soothsayer), = It. divino, 
a soothsayer, theologian, < L. divinus, a sooth- 
sayer, augur, ML. a theologian, < divinus, adj. : 
see I. The last sense, 'divinity,' is directly 
from the adj.] 1. A man skilled in divinity; 
a theologian: as, a great divine; "the Revela- 
V1U.C A O t v' ! . . . 
opening between the legs at one end bears any desired 
proportion to that at the other. 
dividing-engine (di-vi'dmg-enfjm) n Anap 
Prognostwation, etc. See prediction. 
(div'i-na-tor), n. [= F. divinateur 
" = It. divinatore (cf. OF. adi- 
~E> v - f. . '{fi. -, no ioo = FT. aertnaaor = it. urvmuwto ^L. UE> i 
paratusforproducmgthe ^ons of the scak3s aOMnador = Pg. adevinhador), 
or hmbs of mathematical and phi lophica in- LL divina ^ < L ^mnare, pp . divinatus, di- 
struments. Also called dividing-machine and 
gradufi tion-engine. 
dividingly (di-vi'ding-li), adv. By division, 
dividing-machine (di-vT ding-ma-shen''), n. 
Same as dividing-engine. 
divi-divi (div'i-div'i), n. 1. The native and 
. 
vine : see divine, v.'] One who practises divina- 
tion. 
In the leading paper of Cambridge, Mass., published 
within a stone's throw of the university, a professed dim- 
nator has kept for years a large, business-like, and soberly 
worded advertisement of his services. Science, IV. 559. 
commercial name of Ccesalpinia coriaria and divinatory (di-vin'a-to-ri), a. [= F. divinatoire 
its pods. The pods, ^^ .^K = Sp. Pg. It. divinatorio, < LL. *divinatorius, < 
divinator : see divinator."] Pertaining to a divi- 
nator or to divination ; divining. 
We have seen such places before ; we have visited them 
in that divinatory glance which strays away into space for 
a moment over the top of a suggestive book. 
H. James, Jr., Trans. Sketches, p. 308. 
divine (di-vm'), a. and n. _I. a. [< ME. divine, 
which are about 2 
inches long by } inch 
broad, and curled in 
a remarkable manner, 
are exceedingly as- 
tringent, containing a 
large proportion of 
tannic and gallic acid, 
and are for this rea- 
son much used by tai 
Pods of Divi-divi ( Casalfittia coria 
Voltaire was still a courtier ; and ... he had as yet 
published little that a divine of the mild and generous 
school of Grotius and Tillotsou might not read with plea- 
sure. Macaulay. 
2. A minister of the gospel ; a priest; a clergy- 
man. 
It is a good divine that follows his own instructions. 
Shak., M. of V., i. 2. 
3f. A diviner ; a prophet. 
A grete devyn that cleped was Calkas. 
Chaucer, Troilus, i. 68. 
And thys ther he knew by a good deuyn, 
Which somtyme was clerke Merlyn vnto. 
Rom. of Partenay (E. E. T. S.), 1. 5973. 
4f. Divinity. 
I sauh ther bisschops bolde and bachilers of diuyn 
Bi-coome clerkes of a-counte. 
Piers Plowman (A), Prol., 1. 90. 
Assembly of Divines at Westminster. See assembly. 
Ecumenical divines. See ecumenical. = Syn. 2. Cler- 
uyman, Priest, etc. See minister, n. 
, , ; _ , devine, < OF. divin, devin, F. divin = Pi. devm, divine (di-vin'), v. ; pret. and pp. divined, ppr. 
ners and dyers. The plant is a native of tropical America, divin = Sp. Pg. It. divino, divine, < L. divinus, divining. [< ME. devinen, devynen, foresee, fore- 
2. A name given to the similar pods of C. tine- divine, inspired, prophetic, belonging to a deity, tell, interpret, < OF. deviner, F. deviner (cf . Sp. 
dividual (di-vid'u-al), a. and n. [< L. dividuus, 
divisible (see dividuous), + -al. Cf. individual.] 
w/J v.. w.. .-.-. _, Jr tJl LilllllUli LUj \J1. liLLV llOiUtilO *JLf \J1 /X VSUd?U-i..ug 
; participated in; shared in com- f rom (j o( j j or a go( j or heathen deity: as, divine 
ers. [Obsolete or rare.] perfections; divine judgments; the divine honors 
I. a. Divided 
mon with others 
True love 'tween maid and maid may be 
More than in sex dividual. 
Fletcher (and another), Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 3. 
A man may say his religion is now no more within him- 
self, but is becom a dividuall movable. 
Milton, Areopagitica, p. 39. 
Her reign 
With thousand lesser lights dividual holds. 
Milton, P. L., vii. 382. 
But inasmuch as we can only anatomise the dead, and 
as nature certainly is not dead and dividual but living 
and unity, we perforce sacrifice or lose much by these en- 
forced divisions. Maudsley, Body and Will, p. 283. 
II. n. In arith. and alg., one of the several 
parts of a dividend from which each separate 
figure or term of the quotient is found. 
dividuallyt (di-vid'u-al-i), adv. In a dividual 
manner. Imp. Diet. 
dividuous (di-vid'u-us), a. [< L. dividwus, di- 
visible, < dividere, divide : see divide."] Divided ; 
individual; special; accidental; without uni- 
versal significance. [Bare.] 
The accidental and dividuous in this quiet and harmoni- 
ous object is subjected to the life and light of nature. 
Coleridge, Lay Sermons. 
divinalf, divinallet, [ME. divinaile, diyy- 
< divus,dius, a deity, prop, adj., belonging to a adivinar=Pg. adevinhar) = lt. divinare,<."L. divi- 
deity; cf. deus, a god, a deity: see deityT] 1. nare, foresee, foretell, divine, < divinus, divine- 
Pertaining to, of the nature of, or proceeding ly inspired, prophetic, as a soothsayer, prophet: 
see divine, a."] I. trans. 1. To learn or make out 
by or as if by divination; foretell; presage. 
Why dost thou say King Richard is depos'd? 
Dar'st thou, thou little better thing than earth, 
Divine his downfall? Shak., Rich. II., iii. 4. 
Those acute and subtile spirits, in all their sagacity, can 
hardly divine who shall be saved. 
Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, I. 57. 
2. To make out by observation or otherwise ; 
conjecture ; guess. 
She is not of us, as I divine. 
Tennyson, Maud, xxvii. 7. 
The gaze of one who can divine 
A grief and sympathise. 
M. Arnold, Tristram and Iseult. 
paid to the Roman emperors ; a being half hu- 
man, half divine; divine oracles. 
The Soul is a Spark of Immortality, she is a divine Light, 
and the Body is but a Socket of Clay. 
Howell, Letters, iv. 21. 
" Know thyself," was the maxim of Thales, the old Greek 
realist : a maxim thought so divine, that the ancients said 
it fell from heaven. J. F. Clarke, Self-Culture, p. 93. 
Theology cannot say the laws of Nature are not divine; 
all it can say is, they are not the most important of the 
divine laws. J. R. Seeley, Nat. Religion, p. 22. 
2. Addressed or appropriated to God; reli- 
gious; sacred: as, divine worship; divine ser- 
vice, songs, or ascriptions. 
Ful wel sche sang the servise divyne. 
Chaucer (ed. Morris), Gen. Prol. to C. T., 1. 122. 
3. Godlike ; heavenly ; excellent in the highest ... 
degree; extraordinary; apparently above what *" 
is human. 
In you the heart some sweeter hints divines, 
And wiser, than in winter's dull despair. 
Lowell, Bankside, ii. 
3f. To render divine ; deify; consecrate; sanc- 
A divine sentence is in the lips of the king. 
Prov. xvl. 10. 
Over all this weary world of ours, 
Breathe, diviner Air ! 
Tennyson, The Sisters (No. 2). 
A snug prebendary, rejoicing in the reputation of being 
^^SSB,**^ *5^ dM- ^ d ^' witandwi '" es Vfe^s- 
nation, a word or sign used in divination (cf . 
divinal, devinel, divine), < deviner, divine : see 
divine, v.] Divination; a sign used in divina- 
tion. 
What seye we of hem that bileeven in divynailes, as by 
flight or by noyse of briddes or of beestes, or by sort, by 
geomancie, by dremes, by chlrkynge of dores, or crakynge 
of houses, by gnawynge of rattes, and suich manere wrec- 
chednesse? Chaucer (ed. Oilman), Parson's Tale. 
divination (div-i-na'shon), n. [< F. divination 
= Pr. divinacio (cf. Sp. adivinacion = Pg. adevi- 
nhagSo) = It. divinazione = D. divinatie = Dan. 
Sw. divination (in comp.), < L. divinatio(n-), the 
faculty of foreseeing, divination, < divinare, pp. 
divinatus, foresee, divine : see divine, .] 1 . 
The act of divining ; the pretended art of fore- 
telling by supernatural or magical means that 
which is future, or of discovering that which 
is hidden or obscure. The practice of divination is 
very ancient, and has played an important part in the 
theologies of almost all nations. The first attempt to 
raise divination to the dignity of a science is attributed 
to the Chaldeans. The innumerable forms which have 
been in use for thousands of years may be reduced to two 
classes : (1) that effected by a kind of inspiration or di- 
vine afflatus ; and (2) that effected by the observation of 
certain dispositions and collocations of things, circum- 
stances, and appearances, etc., as the flight of birds, the 
disposition of the clouds, the condition of the entrails of 
slaughtered animals, the falling of lots, etc. 
Divination hath been anciently and fitly divided into 
artificial and natural ; whereof artificial is when the mind 
maketh a prediction by argument, concluding upon signs 
and tokens ; natural is when the mind hath a presention 
by an internal power, without the inducement of a sign. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, ii. 203. 
She . . . seem'd of Angels race, 
Living on earth like Angell new divinde. 
Spenser, Daphnaida, i. 
= Syn. 1. To prognosticate, predict, prophesy. 2. To 
see through, penetrate. 
II. intrans. 1. To use or practise divination. 
They [Gipsies) mostly divine by means of a number of 
shells, with a few pieces of coloured glass, money, &c., in- 
termixed with them. 
E. W. Lane, Modern Egyptians, II. 109. 
2. To afford or impart presages of the future ; 
utter presages or prognostications. 
The prophets thereof divine for money. Micah iii. 11. 
3. To have presages or forebodings. 
Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts. 
S/wfc.,3Hen. VI., iv. 6. 
4. To make a guess or conjecture: as, you 
have divined rightly. 
-Divine office the divinely (di-vin'li), adv. 1. In a divine or god- 
like manner ; in a manner resembling deity. 
Born from above and made divinely wise. 
Cowper, Verses from Valediction. 
As when a painter, poring on a face, 
Divinely thro' all hindrance finds the man 
Behind it. Tennyson, Lancelot and Elaine. 
2. By the agency or influence of God: as, a 
prophet divinely inspired ; divinely taught. 
In his [St. Paul's] du>fn<*/-inspired judgment, this kind 
of knowledge so far exceeds all other that none else de- 
serves to be named with it. Bp. Beveridge, Works, I. xviit. 
3. Excellently; in the supreme degree: as, di- 
vinely fair ; divinely brave. 
The Grecians most divinely have given to the active 
perfection of men a name expressing both beauty and 
goodness. Hooker, Eccles. Polity. 
Divinelier imaged, clearer seen, 
With happier zeal pursued. 
M. Arnold, Obermann Once More, st. 75. 
[< OF. devine- 
adivinamiento) = 
is, etc. The divine remedy (divinum It. awmamento; as amne, v., + -ment.~\ Divi- 
remedium), the root of Imperatoria ostntthium, or mas- nation. Nortli. 
Whipple, Ess. and Rev., I. 10. 
He [Wesley] saw the dead in sin coming to life all 
around him ; he passed his happy years in this divinest of 
labors. J. F. Clarke, Self-Culture, p. 79. 
4f. Divining; presageful; foreboding; pre- 
scient. 
Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill, 
Misgave him. Milton, P. L., ix. 845. 
5. Relating to divinity or theology. 
Church history and other divine learning. South. 
Divine assistance. See 
stated service of daily prayer; the canonical hours. 
Divine right, (a) Of kings, the doctrine that the king 
stands toward his people in loco parentis, deriving his 
authority, not from the consent of the governed, but 
directly from God. This doctrine, which in English his- 
tory was especially developed under the Stuarts, though 
still held by some as a matter of theory, has generally 
ceased to have practical political significance. 
The Divine right of kings, independent of the wishes of 
the people, has been one of the most enduring and influ- 
ential of superstitions, and it has even now not wholly 
vanished from the world. Lecky, Europ. Morals, II. 285. 
(6) Of the clergy, a claim of divine authority for particular 
persons and particular forms of ecclesiastical government. 
An instance in the Roman Catholic Church is the still un- 
settled claim of the bishops to power in their several 
dioceses, as opposed to the papal theory that they rule 
mediately through the pope. Divine service; the public 
worship of God ; especially, the stated or ordinary daily 
and Sunday worship ; in the Roman Catholic and Angli- 
can churches, the hours or the daily morning and even- 
ing prayer, and the celebration of the eucharist. Tenure 
2. Figuratively, a sort of instinctive prevision; terwort, which was formerly highly esteemed in medicine djyineneSS (di-vln'nes), n. 1. Divinity; par- 
. *. '.._J i, t..t. but seems to have few virtues except those of an aromatic , *> . = tlio rKnine. 
a presentiment and knowledge of a future 
event or events ; conjectural presage; omen. 
ept those 
stimulant. = Syn. 2. Holy, sacred.-3. Supernatural, BU- 
perhuman. 
, ,Q^O*,II-Q. oa tlio 
ticipation m the divine nature . as, the 
ness of the Scriptures. 
