▪ I. divorce, n.
(dɪˈvɔəs)
Also 4–5 de-, dy-, divors, 4–6 de-, dyvorse, 4–7 devorce, 5 devourse, 5–7 divorse, 6 dyvorce.
[a. F. divorce (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.) = It. divorzio, Sp., Pg. divorcio:—L. dīvortiu-m (dīvertium) separation, dissolution of marriage by consent, n. of action f. dīvertĕre (earlier dīvortĕre) to turn aside, spec. of a woman, to separate from or leave her husband.]
1. Legal dissolution of marriage by a court or other competent body, or according to forms recognized in the country, nation, or tribe.
Formerly and still often (e.g. historically or anthropologically) used in the widest sense; hence, including the formal putting away of, or separation from, a spouse by a heathen or barbarian; the pronouncing a marriage to have been invalid from the beginning owing to fraud, or to legal, canonical, or physical incapacity of the parties, as in the ‘divorce’ of Henry VIII from Catherine (now called in English Law decree of nullity), and the ‘divorce a mensa et thoro’ (from bed and board), long the only ‘divorce’ recognized by English law, but now, since 1857, called ‘judicial separation’. But, in strict legal use, now applied in English-speaking countries only to the dissolution by decree of court of what was in itself a legal marriage, upon grounds sanctioned by the law, and upon evidence accepted by the court.
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. ii. 175 Owre synne to suffre, as auoutrie and deuo[r]ses. 1393 Ibid. C. xxiii. 139 He made leel matrimonye Departe er deþ come and a deuors shupte. c 1400 Apol. Loll. 72 Be ware of making of mariagis, & of diuorsis or dipartingis. 1520 Caxton's Chron. Eng. vii. 80/1 In the same yere was made a dyvorce bytwene the kynge of Fraunce and the quene his wyfe. 1611 Bible Jer. iii. 8, I had put her away and giuen her a bill of diuorce. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, iii. ii. 31 The Cardinall did intreat his Holinesse To stay the Iudgement o' th' Diuorce. 1709 Addison Tatler No. 20 ¶2 A Method of obtaining a Divorce from a Marriage, which I know the Law will pronounce void. 1765–9 Blackstone Comm. (1793) 559 In cases of total divorce, the marriage is declared null, as having been absolutely unlawful ab initio..for which reason..no divorce can be obtained, but during the life of the parties. 1893 Earl Dunmore Pamirs I. 337 This..widow marries the first man that takes her fancy: as..she can get a divorce for the modest sum of threepence-halfpenny. |
2. transf. and fig. Complete separation; disunion of things closely united.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 26 Anticrist haþ so weddid þes goodis wiþ preestis þat noon may make þis dyvors. c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 4775 Bischope Eardulphe..To þe blisse of heuen wende, Fra þis werlde made deuorse. c 1532 G. Du Wes Introd. Fr. in Palsgr. 1050 To suffre devorce or departyng betwene his soule and his body. 1599 Shakes. Hen. V, v. ii. 394 To make diuorce of their incorporate League. 1680 Boyle Scept. Chem. i. 41 Without..having their coherence violated by the divorce of their associated parts. 1726 Ayliffe Parergon 110 'Tis hard to make a Divorce between things that are so near in Nature to each other, as being convertible Terms. 1852 H. Rogers Ecl. Faith (1853) 304 The divorce between the ‘spiritual faculties’ and the intellect..is impossible. |
† 3. That which causes divorce or separation.
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 932 Hateful divorce of love',—thus chides she Death. 1607 ― Timon iv. iii. 382 [To the Gold] O thou sweete King-killer, and deare diuorce Twixt naturall Sunne and sire. |
4. attrib., as divorce-court, etc.
| a 1806 Horsley Sp. Adultery Bill (R.), Expatiating..upon..the perversion as well as the abuse of many divorce-bills which had passed the legislature. 1837 Penny Cycl. IX. 40/1 Divorce bills have not improperly been called the privilege of the rich. 1891 Law Times XCII. 104/2 A point of Divorce law and practice. 1905 Macm. Mag. Nov. 57 Is it an ill thing that the newspapers should publish detailed reports of divorce-suits? 1945 Divorce case [see at prep. 40]. 1955 M. Gluckman Custom & Conflict in Afr. iii. 79 Social factors and not only personal disharmonies may control divorce-rates in Western society. 1960 Spectator 23 Sept. 444 Where people aren't brittle and promiscuous and divorce-prone. |
▪ II. divorce, v.
(dɪˈvɔəs)
Forms: see prec.
[a. F. divorce-r (14th c. in Hatz.-Darm.):—med.L. dīvortiāre to dissolve a marriage (Du Cange), f. L. dīvortium: see prec.]
1. trans. To dissolve the marriage contract between (husband and wife) by process of law; to separate by divorce from.
| 1494 Fabyan Chron. v. cxiii. 86 The Kynge..sayde if y{supt} were true, she shuld frome hym be deuorcyd. 1536 Wriothesley Chron. (1875) I. 41 The King was divorsed from his wife Queene Anne. 1556 Chron. Gr. Friars (Camden) 70 The byshoppe of Wynchester that was than was devorsyd from hys wyffe in Powlles, the whyche was a bucheres wyff of Nottynggam, and gave hare husbande a sartyne mony a yere dureynge hys lyffe. 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, iv. i. 32 By the maine assent Of all these Learned men, she was diuorc'd, And the late Marriage made of none effect. a 1734 North Exam. ii. iv. §57 (1740) 260 When that extraordinary Law passed, to divorce the Earl of Ross from his Wife. 1771 Hooke Rom. Hist. xi. iv, Scribonia was divorced from him [Octavius] the very day she was brought to bed of the famous Julia. |
b. refl.
| 1593 Shakes. 3 Hen. VI, i. i. 247, I here diuorce my selfe, Both from thy Table, Henry, and thy Bed. 1886 F. M. Crawford Lonely Parish xiv, Mrs. G...seemed never to have thought of divorcing herself from her husband. |
c. intr. (for refl.)
| 1643 Milton Divorce i. iv, The reasons which now move him to divorce, are equal to the best of those that could first warrant him to marry. a 1649 Drummond of Hawthornden Hist. Jas. V, Wks. (1711) 100 King Henry, impatient of delays and amorous, divorceth from his own queen, and marrieth Anne Bullen. 1875 Poste Gaius i. Comm. (ed. 2) 116 Justinian enacted that a man or a woman who divorced without a cause should retire to a cloister. |
2. trans. To put away (a spouse); to repudiate.
| 1387 [see divorcing below]. 1526–34 Tindale Matt. v. 32 Whosoever maryeth her that is devorsed breaketh wedlocke. c 1550 Cheke Matt. v. 31 Whosoever divorceth his wife let him give her a diuorsment bil. a 1656 Bp. Hall Rem. Wks. (1660) 161 Another allows a man to divorce that wife he hath upon sleight occasions, and to take another. 1771 Hooke Rom. Hist. Index, Antony..divorces his wife, and marries Fulvia..Declares Cleopatra his wife. Divorces Octavia. 1837 Penny Cycl. IX. 40/1 By the Mohammedan law a man may divorce his wife orally and without any ceremony..He may divorce her twice, and take her again without her consent; but if he divorce her a third time..he cannot receive her again until she has been married and divorced by another husband. |
3. To dissolve (a marriage or union). arch.
| 1580 Sidney Arcadia iii. Wks. 1724 II. 545 The cruel villain forced the sword..to divorce the fair marriage of the head and body. 1643 Milton Divorce i. x, An unlawful marriage may be lawfully divorced. 1873 Browning Red Cotton Night-Cap Country 243 When death divorces such a fellowship. |
4. fig. To separate; to sever, cut off, part.
| 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy ii. xx, Howe his goste and he were deuorced. 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent (1826) 89 It was sometime divorced from the continent by a water. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. ii. v. §5 Were it consonant vnto reason to diuorce these two sentences? 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 29 The King divorced himself from the Church of Rome. 1784 Cowper Task i. 748 Till..knees and hassocks are well nigh divorced. 1871 Tyndall Fragm. Sc. (1879) II. ix. 192 Divorced from matter, where is life? |
† b. intr. (for refl.) Obs.
| 1687 Dryden Hind & P. iii. 205 Divorcing from the Church to wed the dame. |
5. trans. fig. To put away, remove, dispel; to repudiate.
| a 1592 Marlowe & Nashe Dido iii. ii, Fair queen of love, I will divorce these doubts. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, v. iv. 9 The man That would diuorce this terror from my heart. 1675 tr. Machiavelli's Prince xii. (Rtldg. 1883) 77 In time of peace they [mercenaries] divorce you. 1712 Blackmore Creation vi, The pipe distinguished by its gristly rings To cherish life aerial pasture brings, Which the soft-breathing lungs with gentle force Constant embrace by turns, by turns divorce. 1865 Swinburne Poems & Ball., Rococo 30 Say March may wed September And time divorce regret. |
Hence diˈvorced ppl. a.; diˈvorcing vbl. n.
| 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 139 Guynuld..gaf to her housbonde a perpetuel dyvorsynge and forsakynge. 1535 Coverdale Lev. xxi. 14 No wedowe, ner deuorsed, ner defyled..but a virgin of his awne people shal he take to wife. 1642 Milton Apol. Smect. xi. Wks. (1847) 95 1 Why do we not say as to a divors't wife. 1645 ― Tetrach. Deut. xxiv. 1–2, The divorcing of an Israelitish woman was as easy by the law as the divorcing of a stranger. 1861 Mrs. H. Wood East Lynne ii. xi, To marry a divorced woman. |