▪ I. dissever, v.
(dɪˈsɛvə(r))
Forms: 3–5 desevir, 3–6 desever, 5 desevyr, deceuer; 4– dissever (4–5 dess-, 4–6 disc-, 5–6 dysc-, dyss-, 4–5 -evir, 5–6 -evyr, 6 -iver, -ivir, -yfer).
[a. AF. deseverer, desceverer, OF. dessevrer, desevrer (disseverer) (10th c. in Godef.), mod.F. (techn.) desseuvrer:—L. dissēparāre, f. dis- 1, 5 + sēparāre to separate.]
1. trans. To separate (a person or thing from another or from a body, two or more things from each other); to divide, disjoin, sever, part, disunite.
| c 1250 Old Kent. Serm. in O.E. Misc. 31 Þurch scab nis nacht man and wyman deseuird fram mannes felarede. 1382 Wyclif 1 Chron. xxv. 1 [Thei] deseuereden than in to the servyce the sonys of Asaph. c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) xxxiii. 149 Pissemyres..disseuerez þe fyne gold fra þe vnfyne. c 1450 Mirour Saluacion 2554 When thai his body and sawle with the crosse disseueryd. 1541 Act 33 Hen. VIII, c. 31 heading, Disseueringe the bishoprick of Chester..from the iurisdiction of Canturbury. 1550 Coverdale Spir. Perle vii. Wks. 1844 I. 117 The kernel lieth mixed among the chaff, and afterwards are they dissevered asunder with the fan or windle. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 388 Disseuer your vnited strengths. 1681 H. More Exp. Dan. i. 6 A Stone cut out without hands, no man with Axe or Gavelock dissevering it. 1695 Ld. Preston Boeth. v. 224 Mankind must of necessity..be dissevered and disjoined from its Good. 1712–14 Pope Rape Lock iii. 153 The meeting points the sacred hair dissever From the fair head for ever and for ever! 1827 Lytton Pelham lvii, The difference in our politics had of late much dissevered us. 1877 Farrar Days of Youth xix. 179, I have dissevered them from their context. |
2. To divide into parts.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 1602 Thurgh myddis þe..toune meuyt a water, And disseuert þe Cite. 1417 Searchers Verdicts in Surtees Misc. (1890) 11 Chosen be the assent of partys for to dissevir a grounde of a tenement..betwix the Dene and Chipitre..of the ta party, and the Maistre and Freres..on the other party. 1571 Digges Pantom. ii. xxi. P j a, The..Pollygonium, which you shall diuide by the number of partes, whervnto ye would disseuer it. a 1845 Hood Public Dinner ii, A goose that is oldish—At carving not clever—You're begged to dissever. 1854 J. Scoffern in Orr's Circ. Sc. Chem. 3 This mass may be dissevered into smaller parts. |
† b. To break up, dissolve or disperse (a combination). Obs.
| 1393 Gower Conf. I. 234 He that thoughte to dissever The compaignie of hem for ever. 1615 J. Stephens Satyr. Ess. 66 The very name of Crumwell was able to dissever insurrections. |
3. a. refl. To separate, part from each; † to divide or disperse themselves.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace viii. 757 A thousand archaris..Disseueryt thaim amang the iiij party. 1501 Plumpton Corr. 156 We have desevered us. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 87 They did many..famous actes..and many mo had like to have bene done, if they had not dissevered themselves. |
b. intr. To separate, part, go asunder, depart.
| c 1386 Chaucer Can. Yeom. Prol. & T. 322 That futur temps hath maad men disseuere..from al þat euere they hadde. c 1422 Hoccleve Learn to die 404 To perseuere In vicious lyf & from it nat disseuere. c 1430 Pilgr. Lyf Manhode ii. lix. (1869) 98, I sygh that my wey disseuerede and departed in twey weyes. 1568 Grafton Chron. II. 75 Neither he nor his sonne, should recede or dissever from Pope Alexander. 1621 G. Sandys Ovid's Met. viii. (1626) 160 Where His shields disseuer, thrusts his deadly speare. 1820 Shelley Ode Lib. x, As light may pierce the clouds when they dissever In the calm regions of the orient day! |
Hence diˈssevering vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace vii. 557 Our disseueryng I wald na Sotheroune saw. 1536–7 Starkey Let. Hen. VIII in England p. lx, To thys dyssyferyng..schal neuer succede the brech of chrystyan charyte. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. i. 377 Pleasant..Islets lye dispersed by the sundry disseuerings of waters. a 1822 Shelley Pr. Wks. (1880) III. 57 Their dissevering and tyrannical institutions. |
▪ II. † diˈssever, n. Obs. rare.
[f. prec. vb.]
The act of dissevering; severance.
| 1508 Dunbar Poems vi. 22 Semper ibi ad remanendum, Quhill domisday, without disseuer. |