Robert FulfordOlivia Doak Jessica Blake Alex Kotlowitz
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The vest in divest is a close relation of the kind found in closets—its origin is Latin vestis meaning “clothing, garment.” (Vest has the same source and first appeared in English as a verb in the 15th century meaning “to put on garments or vestments.”) Divest today mostly appears in legal and business contexts about a formal removal or loss of something of value; assets that are divested are sold or given away; someone divested of a right officially loses that right. The word’s first late 16th century use, however, was more intimately related to its roots: divest was then used to mean “to undress or strip especially of clothing, ornament, or equipment.” But broader application of divest soon followed. In Shakespeare’s Henry V, the French King Charles is told via messenger that England’s King Henry “wills you, in the name of God Almighty, / That you divest yourself, and lay apart / ... the crown / And all wide-stretched honours that pertain ...”
Examples of divest in a Sentence
Nicholas Kerr,
ABC News,
2 July 2026
The King’s Warden and Colony were both released by Showbox, part of the Orion conglomerate, which divested its controlling stake in Megabox in 2007.
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Liz Shackleton,
Deadline,
2 July 2026
In a news release, the local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine outlined several demands for UMKC, including the disclosure of financial investments and divesting from Israeli weapons, technology and construction companies.
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Katie Moore,
Kansas City Star,
1 July 2026
Conversely, a capital allocation decision to acquire a new development site or divest a flagship asset cannot be handed over to an algorithm.
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Ali Hoss,
Forbes.com,
30 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for divest
Cite this Entry
“Divest.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divest. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
divest
verb
Legal Definition
divest
transitive verb
Transitive verb
Anglo-French devestir, literally, to undress, from Old French desvestir, from de(s)-, prefix marking reversal + vestir to dress, from Latin vestire
