dissever

English

Etymology

From Middle English disseveren, from Anglo-Norman desevrer, Old French dessevrer, from Vulgar Latin *dissēperō, dissēperāre, from Latin dis- + sēparō.

Pronunciation

(UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛvə/
(General American) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛvɚ/

Verb

dissever (third-person singular simple present dissevers, present participle dissevering, simple past and past participle dissevered)

To separate; to split apart.
- a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the page number)”, in Fulke Greville, Matthew Gwinne, and John Florio, editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London: […] [John Windet] for William Ponsonbie, published 1590, OCLC 801077108; republished in Albert Feuillerat, editor, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia (Cambridge English Classics: The Complete Works of Sir Philip Sidney; I), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1912, OCLC 318419127:
  The storm so dissevered the company […] that most of them never met again.
- 1886, Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge:
  Henchard’s wife was dissevered from him by death; his friend and helper Farfrae by estrangement; Elizabeth-Jane by ignorance.
- 1946, Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, I.16:
  Philosophers, Socrates continues, try to dissever the soul from communion with the body, whereas other people think that life is not worth living for a man who has ‘no sense of pleasure and no part in bodily pleasure’.
To divide into separate parts.
If the bridge is destroyed, the shores are dissevered.
- 1844, Miles Coverdale, ‎George, Writings and Translations of Myles Coverdale:
  When the corn is threshed, the kernel lieth mixed among the chaff, and afterward are they dissevered asunder with the fan or windle; even so the people in the church do first hear the preaching of God's word; now some stumble, repine, and are offended at it, and others are not offended, and yet they dwell together, one with another; but when they are fanned or windled, and when the wind of trouble and affliction beginneth once to blow, then is it easy to sunder and to know the one from the other, the faithful from the unfaithful.

Related terms

sever

Translations

separate; split apart

Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} отделям (bg) (otdeljam)

divide into separate parts

Bulgarian: ^{(please verify)} разделям (bg) (razdeljam)

Anagrams

dervises, devisers, disserve