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The vest in divest is a close relation of the kind found in closets—its origin is Latin vestis meaning “clothing, garment.” (Vest has the same source and first appeared in English as a verb in the 15th century meaning “to put on garments or vestments.”) Divest today mostly appears in legal and business contexts about a formal removal or loss of something of value; assets that are divested are sold or given away; someone divested of a right officially loses that right. The word’s first late 16th century use, however, was more intimately related to its roots: divest was then used to mean “to undress or strip especially of clothing, ornament, or equipment.” But broader application of divest soon followed. In Shakespeare’s Henry V, the French King Charles is told via messenger that England’s King Henry “wills you, in the name of God Almighty, / That you divest yourself, and lay apart / ... the crown / And all wide-stretched honours that pertain ...”
Examples of divest in a Sentence
Alex Weprin, HollywoodReporter, 11 June 2025
Students, including Chung, were calling on Columbia to divest from Israel and protesting the expulsions of three classmates.
—Cayla Bamberger, New York Daily News, 5 June 2025
In March 2025, Richemont received regulatory approval to divest Yoox Net-a-Porter (YNAP) to Mytheresa, signaling its formal exit from e-commerce ownership.
—Adam Ayers, Forbes.com, 3 June 2025
The closure also comes at a time when Anglo American, De Beers’ parent company, is divesting the company and is in the process of looking for potential buyers.
—Charlotte Reed, CNBC, 27 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for divest
Cite this Entry
“Divest.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divest. Accessed 15 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
divest
verb
Legal Definition
divest
transitive verb
Anglo-French devestir, literally, to undress, from Old French desvestir, from de(s)-, prefix marking reversal + vestir to dress, from Latin vestire
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