DIVORCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does divorce mean? 

• DIVORCE (noun)
  The noun DIVORCE has 1 sense:

1. the legal dissolution of a marriage

  Familiarity information: DIVORCE used as a noun is very rare.

• DIVORCE (verb)
  The verb DIVORCE has 2 senses:

1. part; cease or break association with

2. get a divorce; formally terminate a marriage

  Familiarity information: DIVORCE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIVORCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The legal dissolution of a marriage

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

divorce; divorcement

Hypernyms ("divorce" is a kind of...):

separation (the social act of separating or parting company)

Domain category:

jurisprudence; law (the collection of rules imposed by authority)

Derivation:

divorce (get a divorce; formally terminate a marriage)

• DIVORCE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they divorce    ... he / she / it divorces   
Past simple: divorced   
Past participle: divorced   
-ing form: divorcing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Part; cease or break association with

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

disassociate; disjoint; dissociate; disunite; divorce

Context example:

She disassociated herself from the organization when she found out the identity of the president

Hypernyms (to "divorce" is one way to...):

break; break up; part; separate; split; split up (discontinue an association or relation; go different ways)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Sense 2

Meaning:

Get a divorce; formally terminate a marriage

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

divorce; split up

Context example:

The couple divorced after only 6 months

Hypernyms (to "divorce" is one way to...):

break; break up; part; separate; split; split up (discontinue an association or relation; go different ways)

"Divorce" entails doing...:

conjoin; espouse; get hitched with; get married; hook up with; marry; wed (take in marriage)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence examples:

Sam and Sue divorce
Sam cannot divorce Sue

Derivation:

divorce (the legal dissolution of a marriage)

divorcee (a divorced woman or a woman who is separated from her husband)

divorcement (the legal dissolution of a marriage)

 Context examples 

Like every major life change, divorce is stressful.

(Divorce, NIH)

If you are in a court case, say for a divorce, you might owe your soon-to-be-ex quite a large sum.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

A condition in which a person responds to a stressful event (such as an illness, job loss, or divorce) with extreme emotions and actions that cause problems at work and home.

(Adjustment disorder, NCI Dictionary)

I am your wife. You know you have never got a divorce.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

For example: You brought a divorce case, or a restitution case, into the Consistory.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Statistics about births, deaths, marriages, and divorces are sometimes called "vital statistics."

(Health Statistics, NIH)

I could not marry her, for I have a wife who has left me for years and yet whom, by the deplorable laws of England, I could not divorce.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For example, the birth of a sibling, a divorce, or a death in the family may cause a child to act out.

(Child Behavior Disorders, NIH)

Their artistry was high, but he denied the worthwhileness of artistry when divorced from humanness.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Children of the same family, the same blood, with the same first associations and habits, have some means of enjoyment in their power, which no subsequent connexions can supply; and it must be by a long and unnatural estrangement, by a divorce which no subsequent connexion can justify, if such precious remains of the earliest attachments are ever entirely outlived.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)