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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
Lee Ying Shan, CNBC, 19 Oct. 2025
In recent years, lawmakers, environmentalists, consumer advocates and California’s former top insurance regulator have pressed insurers to divest from fossil fuel companies and phase out writing coverage for oil wells, coal mines and other extraction projects.
—Ethan Varian, Mercury News, 19 Oct. 2025
Wingtech has had run-ins before with other Western governments over its operations, with Britain ordering it to divest ownership of a facility in Newport.
—CNN Money, 13 Oct. 2025
The agreement keeps the popular app alive in the US more than a year after lawmakers passed a bill that would ban TikTok unless Chinese owner ByteDance divests its US operations.
—semafor.com, 29 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for divest
Cite this Entry
“Divest.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/divest. Accessed 30 Oct. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
divest
verb
Legal Definition
divest
transitive verb
Anglo-French devestir, literally, to undress, from Old French desvestir, from de(s)-, prefix marking reversal + vestir to dress, from Latin vestire
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