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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
Lionel Lim, Fortune, 4 July 2025
Under the terms of the settlement, HPE agreed to divest Instant On and license Mist AIOps technology to competitors, a rare concession in technology mergers and acquisitions.
—Trefis Team, Forbes.com, 3 July 2025
Earlier this month, Trump extended the deadline for ByteDance to divest from the platform's U.S. business.
—Dylan Butts, CNBC, 30 June 2025
Students called on Columbia to divest from its investments in Israel that helped propel war efforts.
—Hannan Adely, USA Today, 22 June 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 10 Jul. 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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