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To divest of provincial quality or characteristics.

To turn the course of, as water; to divert and distribute into subordinate channels; to diffuse; to communicate; to transmit; -- followed by to, into, on, upon. [Obs.] For fear it [water] choke up the pits . . . they [the workman] derive it by other drains. Holland. Her due loves derived to that vile witch's share. Spe…

To divest of a sacred character or office; to divert from a sacred purpose; to violate the sanctity of; to profane; to put to an unworthy use; -- the opposite of consecrate. The [Russian] clergy can not suffer corporal punishment without being previously desecrated. W. Tooke. The founders of monasteries imprecated evil…

To strip, as of clothing; to divest or unclothe. [Obs.] Chaucer.

To remove or drive from a throne; to depose; to divest of supreme authority and dignity. "The Protector was dethroned." Hume.

See Divergence. [Obs.]

To divest; to undress. Shak.

y; to turn aside from a course or a method; to stray or go astray; to err; to digress; to diverge; to vary. Thus Pegasus, a nearer way to take, May boldly deviate from the common track. Pope.

Irregularity of form; diversity of form; want of uniformity. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.

f transmitted and reflected light, and by contrivances such as screens and shutters, much diversity of scenic effect is produced.

The state of disagreeing; a being at variance; dissimilitude; diversity.

The act of divesting of armature. [R.]

To divest of a branch or branches; to tear off. Shak.

To divest of a clout. [R.]

Variegated; of divers colors. [R.] That ever wore discolored arms. Chapman.

; a chord demanding resolution into a concord. For a discord itself is but a harshness of divers sounds mBacon. Apple of discord. See under Apple.

To divest or deprive of deity or of a deific rank or condition. Feltham.

Divested of a body; ceased to be corporal; incorporeal. The disembodied spirits of the dead. Bryant.

To divest of the or corporeal existence. Devils embodied and disembodied. Sir W. Scott.

To deprive of power; to divest of strength. H. Bushnell.