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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
Eduardo Cuevas, USA Today, 25 Apr. 2025
The incidents followed months of tensions between the university’s administration and pro-Palestinian students who had in 2024 demanded university leaders divest from Israel amid its war in Gaza.
—Dalia Faheid, CNN Money, 24 Apr. 2025
Meanwhile, Feinberg lined up a strategy to divest from his multibillion-dollar business empire and move into public office.
—Dan Alexander, Forbes.com, 23 Apr. 2025
The Justice Department has called for Google to divest its Chrome browser unit and open its search data to rivals.
—Jennifer Elias, CNBC, 21 Apr. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Divest.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divest. Accessed 3 May. 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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