▪ I. disunite, v.
(dɪsjuːˈnaɪt)
[f. dis- 6 + unite.]
1. trans. To undo the union of; to disjoin: a. from material union.
| 1598 Florio, Disgiongere..to disioyne, to disunite, to deuide. a 1631 Donne in Select. (1840) 178 A corner-stone, that unites things most disunited. 1725 Pope Odyss. iii. 582 The beast they then divide, and disunite The ribs and limbs. 1830 Lyell Princ. Geol. (1875) I. ii. xvii. 406 The Alkali, when disunited from the Silica, would readily be dissolved. |
b. (more frequently) from immaterial union; To separate from alliance, conjoint action, etc.; to set at variance, alienate.
| 1560 [see disunited below]. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. ii. iii. 109 Their fraction is more our wish than their faction; but it was a strong counsell that a Foole could disunite. 1641 Milton Reform. ii. (1851) 55 Goe on both hand in hand, O Nations never to be dis-united. 1685 Dryden Albion & Albanus ii. Wks. 1883 VII. 257 Disturb their union, disunite their love. 1794 Southey Wat Tyler ii. i, They will use every art to disunite you..Whom in a mass they fear. 1852 C. M. Yonge Cameos (1877) IV. v. 62 That her father was not disunited from his first wife. |
2. intr. (for refl.) To sever or separate oneself; to part; to fall or come asunder.
| 1675 G. R. tr. Le Grand's Man Without Passion 146 The Spirit must disunite from the senses. a 1716 South (J.), The several joints of the body politick do separate and disunite. 1818 Shelley Rosalind & Helen 984 Strains of harmony, That mingle in the silent sky, Then slowly disunite. 1827 Aikman Hist. Scot. III. iv. 435 The supplicants..refused to disunite. |
3. Manège. (See quots.)
| 1727 Bailey vol. II. s.v., (With Horsemen) A Horse is said to disunite, that drags his Haunches, that Gallops false. 1833 Regul. Instr. Cavalry i. 57 Cantering with the near fore, followed by the off hind, or off fore, followed by the near hind, is ‘disunited’. |
Hence disuˈnited ppl. a. (whence disuˈnitedly adv.): disuˈniting vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1560 Whitehorne Arte Warre (1573) 19 a, The disunited and discencious do agree. 1611 Florio, Disunimento, a disuniting. 1651 Hobbes Leviath. ii. xviii. 88 The confusion of a disunited Multitude. 1680 S. Mather Iren. 16 The severity of this dis-uniting principle. 1844 Thirlwall Greece VIII. 21 A number of feeble disunited hordes. 1854 J. S. C. Abbott Napoleon (1855) II. xxvi. 490 The disuniting of the army. 1871 R. Ellis Catullus lxiii. 84 So in ire she spake, adjusting disunitedly then her yoke. |
▪ II. † disuˈnite, ppl. a. Obs.
[Short for disunited, after L. unītus united.]
= disunited.
| 1642 H. More Song of Soul iii. ii. xviii, Sith the soul from them is disunite. |