▪ I. divine, a. and n.1
(dɪˈvaɪn)
Forms: 4–6 devin(e, de-, dyvyn(e, 5–6 divyne, Sc. de-, dywyne, 6 dyvine, 7 divin, 4– divine.
[ME. devine, divine, a. OF. devin (12th c. in Hatz.-Darm.), later divin:—L. dīvīnus pertaining to a deity. In med.L. dīvīnus bore the sense of theologus. OF. devin was the word of popular formation; divin was a learned assimilation to the ancient L. type, which in F. became the accepted form for the adj., and in English for all senses: cf. divine n.2]
A. adj.
1. Of or pertaining to God or a god.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. v. pr. ii. 118 (Camb. MS.) The speculacion or lookynge of the deuyne thoght. 1388 Wyclif Deut. i. 13 Ȝyue ȝe of ȝou men wise in dyuyn thingis. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 3 b, The diuyne nature or godhed. 1590 Spenser F.Q. i. x. 67 So darke are earthly things compar'd to things divine. 1644 Milton Areop. (Arb.) 51 Many..complain of divin Providence for suffering Adam to transgresse. 1709 Pope Ess. Crit. 525 To err is human, to forgive divine. 1878 R. W. Dale Lect. Preach. 290 Divine acts are not less Divine because they do not happen to be recorded in the Canonical Scriptures. |
2. Given by or proceeding from God; having the sanction of or inspired by God.
divine right, a right conferred by or based on the ordinance or appointment of God. divine right of kings, that claimed according to the doctrine that (legitimate) kings derive their power from God alone, unlimited by any rights on the part of their subjects. In English History, the phrase came into specific use in the 17th c., when the claim was prominently made for the Stuart kings.
| c 1386 Chaucer Monk's T. 67 By precept of the Messager diuyn. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. i. i. 2 Dywyne Scrypture. c 1450 Henryson Test. Cres. (R.) Ye gaue me ones a diuine responsaile That I should be the floure of loue in Troye. 1567 Satir. Poems Reform. iii. 128 Quhome God did place be ordinance dewyne. a 1600 Hooker Eccl. Pol. viii. ii. §6 Unto kings by human right, honour by very divine right, is due. 1625 Burges Pers. Tithes 2 Whether Tithes be perpetually due to the Ministers of the Gospell by Diuine Right. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. ii. Wks. (1847) 85 The divine right of episcopacy was then valiantly asserted. 1640 Const. & Canons i. B iv b, The most High and Sacred order of Kings is of Divine right, being the ordinance of God himself. 1742 Pope Dunc. iv. 188 The Right Divine of kings to govern wrong. 1767 Blackstone Comm. II. iii. 25, I will not put the title of the clergy to tithes upon any divine right, though such a right certainly commenced, and I believe as certainly ceased, with the Jewish theocracy. 1835 J. Waterworth Exam. Princ. Protestantism 95 Did this unrivalled Biblist acknowledge any writings as divine, which the Jews did not receive as canonical? 1865 Seeley Ecce Homo iv. (ed. 8) 31 In obedience to an irresistible divine impulse. 1871 Morley Voltaire (1886) 63 The apologies of Jesuit writers for the assassination of tyrants deserve an important place in the history of the doctrine of divine right. |
3. Addressed, appropriated, or devoted to God; religious, sacred.
divine service, the public worship of God, divine office, the stated office or service of daily prayer; the canonical hours.
| c 1380 Wyclif Wks. (1880) 41 Do clerkis deuyn officis after þe ordre of þe holy Chirche of rome. c 1386 Chaucer Prol. 122 Fful weel she soong the seruice dyuyne. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems x. 27 Do ȝour obseruance devyne To him that is of kingis king. 1549 Bk. Com. Prayer Pref., The common prayers in the Churche, commonlye called diuine seruice. c 1600 Shakes. Sonn. cviii. 5 Yet, like prayers divine, I must each day say o'er the very same. 1674 Playford Skill Mus. i. 71 The Tunes of Psalms are of general use, all who are true Lovers of Divine Musick, will have them in estimation. 1682 Stoddon (title) An Essay on a Question relating to Divine Worship. 1720 Watts (title), Divine Songs, attempted in easy language, for the use of children. 1848 Wharton Law Lex., Divine Service, tenure by, an obsolete holding, in which the tenants were obliged to do some special divine services in certain, as to sing so many masses, to distribute such a sum in alms, etc. 1880 Dict. Chr. Antiq. s.v. Divine office, Offices for the several hours of prayer, which together constitute the Divine Office, as distinguished from the liturgy. 1889 Farrar Lives Fathers, Ambrose, xv. §3 II. 169 Theodosius..as a penitent..abstained from presenting himself at divine service. |
4. a. Partaking of the nature of God; characteristic of or consonant to deity; godlike; heavenly, celestial.
| c 1374 Chaucer Boeth. v. pr. ii. 118 (Camb. MS.) Why in the souereynes dyuynes substaunces, þat is to seyn in spiritz, Iugement is moore cleere. 1393 Gower Conf. II. 167 Men saiden, that she was divine, And the goddess of sapience. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xxv. 113 All the hevinly court devyne. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. viii. §6 The diuiner part in relation vnto the baser of our soules. 1632 Milton Penseroso 12 Hail, divinest Melancholy! Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight. 1667 ― P.L. iii. 40 Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine. 1697 Dryden Alexander's Feast 171 At last divine Cecilia came. 1850 Tennyson In Mem. Prol. iv, Thou seemest human and divine, The highest, holiest manhood, thou. 1882 Farrar Early Chr. I. 97 The strains..of divinest music in which the voice of inspiration died away. |
† b. Immortal; beatified. Obs.
| 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. i. 38 For what I speake, My body shall make good vpon this earth, Or my diuine soule answer it in heauen. 1632 Heywood 2nd Pt. Iron Age iv. Wks. 1874 III. 409 Thou lyest downe mortall, who must rise diuine. |
5. In weaker sense: More than human, excellent in a superhuman degree. a. Of persons: Of more than human or ordinary excellence; pre-eminently gifted; in the highest degree excellent.
| 1552 Huloet, Divine or immortall, nectareus. 1591 Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, i. vi. 4 Diuinest Creature..How shall I honour thee for this successe? a 1635 Corbet Poems (1807) 18 Nothing did win more praise..Then did their actors most divine. 1680 Crowne Misery Civ. War Prol., For by his feeble skill 'tis built alone, The Divine Shakespear did not lay one stone. 1711 Steele Spect. No. 146 ¶3 The divine Socrates is here represented in a Figure worthy his great Wisdom and Philosophy. 1795–1814 Wordsw. Excursion i. 250 That mighty orb of song, The divine Milton. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 473 That would clearly contradict the divine Homer. |
b. Of things: Of surpassing beauty, perfection, excellence, etc.; extraordinarily good or great. Freq. in trivial use.
| c 1470 Henry Wallace vi. 348 Thai..In cartis brocht thar purwiance dewyne. 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. i. xiii. §9, I graunt..that oftentimes a thing is called Diuine or of God, that is notable by any singular excellence. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. ii. 77 Beautifull Tyrant, fiend Angelicall..Dispised substance of Diuinest show. 1655 H. Vaughan Silex Scint. 85 Blackness sits On the divinest wits. 1757 A. Cooper Distiller iii. xlvii. (1760) 212 Recipe for a Gallon of Divine Water. 1818 La Belle Assemblée XVII. 40/6, I have had the divinest cornette sent me. 1826 H. N. Coleridge West Indies 147 The champagne at eighteen dollars really divine. 1870 L. M. Alcott Old-Fashioned Girl (1874) iii. 42 Your foot is perfectly divine in that boot. 1877 Kate Thompson Publ. Pict. Gall. Rembrandt, The great master of the Dutch school..preeminent by his wonderful and Divine talents. 1960 R. Daniel Death by Drowning iv. 45 I've just bought a divine swim suit. |
6. Connected or dealing with divinity or sacred things; sacred. Obs. or arch.
| 1548 Hall Chron., Hen. VI (an. 9) 115 b, All auncient writers, as well devine, as prophane. 1603 Owen Pembrokesh. (1891) 235 A famouse Doctour of divinitie as appeareth by his devyne works. 1605 Bacon Adv. Learn. i. Ded. §2. 2 A rare Conjunction, as wel of divine and sacred literature, as of prophane and humaine. 1720 Watts Divine Songs Pref., This may sometimes give their thoughts a divine turn, and raise a young meditation. [1840 Carlyle Heroes iii. (1872) 85, I give Dante my highest praise when I say of his Divine Comedy that it is..genuinely a Song.] |
† 7. Forboding, prescient. [a Latinism.] rare.
| 1667 Milton P.L. ix. 845 Yet oft his heart, divine of somthing ill, Misgave him. |
8. Comb., as divine-human, human and divine; divine-looking adj.; divine proportion, literal translation of the term used by L. Pacioli for golden section: see golden a. 5 d.
| 1884 Chr. World 11 Sept. 688/2 The animal-human is very obstructive to the Divine-human. 1892 Westcott Gospel of Life 254 [Christianity] is summed up in the facts of a divine-human life. 1893 Tablet 9 Dec. 933 The Divine-human Mediator in heaven. 1937 F. Scott Fitzgerald Let. 8 Oct. (1964) 18 I'm glad Stanley is divine-looking; sorry Andrew is repulsive. [1509 L. Pacioli (title) De divina proportione.] 1920 R. C. Archibald in J. Hambidge Dynamic Symmetry 152 ‘Divine proportion’ was used by Fra Luca Pacioli in 1509 and possibly earlier by Pier della Francesca. 1951 [see golden a. 5 d]. 1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia XIII. 874/2 The Neo-Impressionists Georges Seurat..and Paul Signac based the linear pattern of many of their compositions upon the principle of this ‘divine proportion’. |
† B. n.1 Obs. [absolute uses of the adj., or its F. original.]
1. Divine service.
| 1480 Will of Vavesour (Comm. Crt. Lond.), To sing Devyne for my sowle. 1606 Sc. Acts Jas. VI (1814) 327 (Jam.) Twa clerkis to serue in the divines within the College kirk of Creichtoun. |
2. Divinity, theology.
| 1303 R. Brunne Handl. Synne 2890 Seynt austyn þat was a clerk of dyuyne. Ibid. 11411 A master of dyuyne. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 90 Bisschops Bolde and Bachilers of diuyn. c 1400 Rom. Rose 6490, I wole fillen..My paunche of good mete and wyne, As shulde a maister of dyvyne. |
3. Soothsaying; conjecture; divination.
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 282 Merlyn, in his deuyn, of him has said, Þat þre regions, in his bandons, salle be laid. ― Chron. Wace (Rolls) 8092 On þis manere myghte Merlyn Be geten & born, by oure deuyn. |
4. Divine nature, divinity.
| 1393 Gower Conf. II. 132 Bachus..Accordant unto his divine A prest..He had. |
▪ II. divine, n.2
(dɪˈvaɪn)
Also 4–5 devine, -vyne, dy-.
[a. OF. devin soothsayer (13th c. in Littré), also later devin, divin theologian (15th c. in Godef.); the former the popular descendant of L. dīvīn-us soothsayer (become *devīn-us in late L.); the latter repr. med.L. dīvīnus doctor of divinity, theologian; both subst. uses of L. dīvīnus adj. In both senses confirmed in Eng. to the L. spelling.]
† 1. A diviner, soothsayer, augur; a prophet, seer.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1302 Dere Daniel also, þat watz deuine noble. 1340 Ayenb. 19 Þe deuines and þe wichen and þe charmeresses þet workeþ be þe dyeules crefte. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus i. 66 A gret Deuyn þat cleped was Calkas..Knew wel þat Troye sholde destroyed be By answere of his god. c 1430 Lydg. Bochas ii. i. (1554) 42 b, Saul had cast out all diuines From Israell, and eche diuineresse. 1525 Ld. Berners Froiss. II. ccxx [ccxvi]. 680 note, Of these deuins, arioles, and charmers, there were certayne brente at Parys. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. I. 2/2 To deriue the name of their diuines called Magi from him [Magus]. |
2. One who has officially to do with ‘divine things’; formerly, any ecclesiastic, clergyman, or priest; now, one skilled in divinity; a theologian.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 376 Bastard dyvynes seien..þat þes wordis of Crist ben fals. 1388 ― Bible Prol. xiii. 51 Dyuynys that schulden passe othere men in clennesse and hoolynesse. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 7503 He was a clerke and gude deuyne. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. i. ii. 16 It is a good Diuine that followes his owne instructions. 1662 Gauden (title) The works of Mr. Richard Hooker, that learned godly judicious and eloquent Divine. 1791 Boswell Johnson 30 Aug. an. 1780, He wrote a young clergyman..the following..letter, which contains valuable advice to Divines in general. 1847 Emerson Poems, Problem Wks. (Bohn) I. 401 Taylor, the Shakespeare of divines. 1874 L. Stephen Hours in Library (1892) I. ix. 305 We see in him the gentle mystic rather than the stern divine. |
† b. Applied to non-Christian writers on theology, and to the priests of heathen religions. Obs.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) III. 219 (Mätz.) Among alle manere of philosofres þey þat were icleped deuynes [qui theologi vocabantur] bere þe prys. 1587 Golding De Mornay x. 144 Pythagoras and all the old Diuines affirme, that God or the onely One is the beginner of all things. 1611 Shakes. Wint. T. iii. i. 19 The Oracle (Thus by Apollo's great Diuine seal'd vp). |
▪ III. divine, v.
(dɪˈvaɪn)
Also 4–5 devine, -vyne, dyvine, -yne.
[a. F. devine-r (12th c.) to recount, signify, wish, prophesy, ad. L. dīvīnāre to foretell, predict, after devin divine: see prec.]
I. Transitive senses.
† 1. To make out or interpret by supernatural or magical insight (what is hidden, obscure, or unintelligible to ordinary faculties); hence, in later use, to interpret, explain, disclose, make known. Obs.
| 13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1561 Þat con dele wyth demerlayk, & deuine lettres. 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. viii. 138 Daniel deuynede þe Dremels of a Kyng. 1393 Ibid. C. i. 217 What this metals by-meneþ Diuine ȝe. Ibid. xxii. 240 He tauhte..somme to dyuyne and dyuyde, numbres to kenne. a 1400–50 Alexander 1905 Now þou..graithis me trouage, With all þis dignites be-dene þat I diuined haue. c 1500 Blowbol's Test. in Halliw. Nugæ Poet. 5 The cause why I shall to you devyne. a 1625 Fletcher Nice Valour ii. i, I can..Divine my mind to you. |
b. To discover or indicate by means of the divining rod. nonce-use.
| 1890 Pall Mall G. 9 June 6/3 The boy has now been engaged to go to Australia to ‘divine’ the underground water and minerals of its arid and auriferous regions. |
2. To make out by sagacity, intuition, or fortunate conjecture (that is, in some other way than by actual information); to conjecture, guess.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus v. 288 He koude wel dyuyne That Troilus al nyght for sorwe wook. c 1386 ― Shipman's T. 224 Wyf..litel kanstow deuyne The curious bisynesse that we haue. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 6706 How it strekys kan I noȝt deuyne. 1530 Palsgr. 514/2 He were a wyse man that coulde devyne what they talke of nowe. 1696 tr. Du Mont's Voy. Levant 44 Nor cou'd I divine the Meaning of it. 1786 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 37 He could not divine the cause of this extraordinary change. 1847 Emerson Repr. Men, Swedenborg Wks. (Bohn) I. 312 In common parlance, what one man is said to learn by experience, a man of extraordinary sagacity is said, without experience, to divine. 1863 Mrs. Oliphant Salem Ch. ii. 28 He began to divine faintly..that external circumstances do stand for something. |
3. To have supernatural or magical insight into (things to come); to have presentiment of; hence gen. to predict or prophesy by some kind of special inspiration or intuition.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iv. 361 (389) But who may al eschewe or al deuyne? c 1400 Mandeville (Roxb.) viii. 29 Oþer thinges þai pronostic and diuines by þe colours of þa flawmes. 1555 Eden Decades 47 They diuined the destruction of theyr countrey. 1594 Shakes. Rich. III, iii. ii. 18 To shun the danger that his Soule diuines. 1663 Butler Hud. i. ii. 833 None..could divine To which side Conquest would incline. 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 374 Truly it is not easy to divine what that army may become at last. 1855 Bain Senses & Int. iii. ii. §23 To infer beforehand, or divine, the characters that we should find. |
† 4. Of things: To point out, foreshow, prognosticate, portend. Obs.
| 1596 Drayton Leg. iv. 69 This prodigious sign..some strange Newes though ever it divine, yet forth them not immediately it brings. 1657 Cokaine Obstinate Lady i. ii, What envious star when I was born divin'd This adverse Fate? 1712 Swift Sid Hamet 22 A certain magick rod..divines Whene'er the soil has golden mines. 1847 Emerson Poems, Initial Love Wks. (Bohn) I. 457 All things wait for and divine him. |
† 5. To think or conceive of, devise, contrive, by special inspiration or extraordinary sagacity. Obs.
| 1393 Langl. P. Pl. C. xii. 265 Dauid þe doughty..deuynede how Vrye Mighte slilokeste be slayn. c 1450 Henryson Mor. Fab. 11 All courses that Cookes could deuyne. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lxxxiv. 15 The lustiast ladie that nature can devyne. 1598 Yong Diana 225 So much force had one God..ouer each others soule, diuining the great and inuiolable friendship that should be betweene him and me. |
† 6. To render divine; to canonize; to divinize.
| 1591 Spenser Daphn. 214 Living on earth like Angell new divinde. 1591 ― Ruines of Time 611 Th' Harpe..out of the River was reard And borne above the cloudes to be divin'd. 1622 Drayton Poly-olb. xxiv. 191 Leaving these divin'd, to Decuman we come..who was crown'd with glorious martyrdom. |
† b. To call or style divine. Obs.
| 1621 Bp. R. Montagu Diatribæ ii. 353 Your nobling and diuining him elswhere. |
II. Intransitive senses.
7. To use or practise divination; to obtain insight into what is future or unrevealed by auguries, portents, magical or occult devices; to soothsay.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus ii. 1696 (1745) The folk deuyne at waggynge of a stre. 1382 Wyclif Gen. xliv. 5 The coppe..in the which my Lord is wonte to dyuyne. 1388 ― Isa. xliv. 25 Dyuynours that dyuynen by sacrifices offrid to feendis. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. xv. lii. (1495) 507 Some in Ethiopia..haue an hounde for theyr kynge, and dyuyne by his meuynge. 1609 Bible (Douay) Lev. xix. 26 You shal not divine, nor observe dreames. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 372 They go to some learned Doctor, who Divines by the Alcoran. 1726 De Foe Hist. Devil ii. vi. 1835–49 Lane Mod. Egypt. II. 111 They [Gypsies] mostly divine by means of a number of shells, with a few pieces of coloured glass, money, etc., intermixed with them. |
8. To foretell by divine or superhuman power; to prophesy. arch.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. viii. 143 As Daniel diuinede hit fel in dede after. 1606 Shakes. Ant. & Cl. ii. vi. 123 If I were bound to Diuine of this vnity, I wold not Prophesie so. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life i. (1861) 19 We are as lawgivers; we speak for Nature; we prophesy and divine. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid ii. 246 Cassandra of coming evil divined. |
9. To conjecture (as to the unknown or obscure); to make an inference by conjecture, insight, intuition, or other means than actual information.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. xi. 138 Þe deppore I diuinede þe derkore me þouȝte. c 1386 Chaucer Wife's Prol. 26 Men may deuyne and glosen vp and doun. 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. ii. 39 Something from Cyprus, as I may diuine. 1851 Carlyle Sterling ii. ii. (1872) 100 The meanest have a dignity..and hence, as I divine, the startling whirl of incongruous juxtaposition. |
† b. with of, on, upon: To make conjectures about or concerning; to augur from. Obs.
| c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 409 (458) Lest ony wyght dyuynen or deuyse Wolde of hem two. c 1386 ― Knt.'s T. 1657 The paleys ful of peples..Dyvynynge of thise Thebane knyghtes two. 1513 More in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 766 The people diverslye devinyng upon this dealing. a 1592 Greene Jas. IV, v. v, Whereon divine you, Sir? 1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 857 Thereof would diversely divine every man according to his own fantasie. 1653 Holcroft Procopius i. 29 The Romans divining upon it, were confident of the Emperours prevailing in this Warr. 1725 Pope Odyss. i. 144 At chess they vie, to captivate the queen; Divining of their loves. |
Hence diˈvined ppl. a. (in quot., Made divine).
| 1624 Quarles Sion's Sonn. in Farr S.P. Jas. I (1848) 140 The glory of thy divined place No age can injure, nor yet time deface. |