divine

• enPR: dĭ-vīnʹ, IPA^(key): /dɪˈvaɪn/

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• Rhymes: -aɪn

From Old French divin, from Latin dīvīnus (“of a god”), from divus (“god”). Displaced native Old English godcund.

divine (comparative more divine, superlative most divine)

1. Of or pertaining to a god.

   Synonyms: deific, godlike, godly

   Antonyms: undivine, ungodly

2. Eternal, holy, or otherwise godlike.

   Synonyms: hallowed, holy, sacred

   Antonyms: godless, secular, ungodly

3. Of superhuman or surpassing excellence.

   Synonyms: supreme, ultimate

   Antonyms: humdrum, mediocre, ordinary

4. Beautiful, heavenly.

   Synonyms: beautiful, delightful, exquisite, heavenly, lovely, magnificent, marvellous/marvelous, splendid, wonderful

   Antonyms: horrible, horrid, nasty, unpleasant

5. (obsolete) Foreboding; prescient.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill, / Misgave him.

6. (obsolete, of souls) immortal; elect or saved after death
   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 23, column 1:

     Now Thomas Mowbray do I turne to thee,
     And marke my greeting well: for what I ſpeake,
     My body ſhall make good vpon this earth,
     Or my diuine ſoule anſwer it in heauen.

   • 1632, Thomas Heywood, The Iron Age, Part 2:

     (Of that at leaſure) but the bloody ſtage
     On which to act, Generall this night is thine,
     Thou lyeſt downe mortall, who muſt riſe diuine.

   • 1703, Charles Povey, Meditations of a Divine Soul: Or, the Chriſtian’s Guide, Amidſt the Various Opinions of a vain World, page 594:

     Then rouſe up, my Divine Soul, who art ready for Eternal Glory, and bid the World a final A-dieu, with all its fond Deluſions and gilded Baits of Folly: For the time is now at hand, when thou my moſt precious Jewel, muſt launch out into the Deep of Everlaſting Bliſs

7. Relating to divinity or theology.
   • 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, 6th edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] J[ames] Bettenham, for Jonah Bowyer, […], published 1727, →OCLC:

     church history and other divine learning

• Divine

divine (plural divines)

1. One skilled in divinity; a theologian.
   • 1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning:

     Poets were the first divines.

2. A minister of the gospel; a priest; a clergyman.
   • December 22, 1820, John Woodbridge, Sermon preached in Hadley in commemoration of the landing our fathers at Plymouth

     The first divines of New England […] were surpassed by none in extensive erudition.

3. (often capitalized, with 'the') God or a god, particularly in its aspect as a transcendental concept.

• (theologian, cleric): clergyman, cleric, man of the cloth, theologian
• (a deity): deity, god, God, Allah (Muslim)

• archdivine
• school-divine

Replaced Middle English devine, devin from Middle French deviner, from Latin dīvīnō.

divine (third-person singular simple present divines, present participle divining, simple past and past participle divined)

1. (transitive) To foretell (something), especially by the use of divination.
   • 1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:

     a sagacity which divined the evil designs

   • 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

     Darest thou […] divine his downfall?

2. (transitive) To guess or discover (something) through intuition or insight.
   • 1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night:

     no secret can be told
     To any who divined it not before

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 43”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     If in the loneliness of his studio he wrestled desperately with the Angel of the Lord he never allowed a soul to divine his anguish.

   • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, 250c:

     I suppose that we truly are divining that what is is some third thing when we say that change and stability are.

3. (transitive) To search for (underground objects or water) using a divining rod.
4. To render divine; to deify.
   • 1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Vertuous Douglas Howard,Daughter and Heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and Wife of Arthure Gorges Esquier. […], London: […] [Thomas Orwin] for William Ponsonby, […], →OCLC:

     Living on earth like angel new divined.

• dive in

• IPA^(key): /di.vin/
• Rhymes: -in

divine

1. feminine singular of divin

divine

1. feminine plural of divino

From dīvīnus (“of divine origin”).

dīvīnē (comparative dīvīnius, superlative dīvīnissimē)

1. prophetically, by divine inspiration
2. divinely, admirably

• (divinely, admirably): dīvīnitus

• dīvīnātiō
• dīvīnitās
• dīvīnitus
• dīvīnō
• dīvīnus

• “divine”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “divine”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• divine in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, 1st edition. (Oxford University Press)

divine

1. inflection of divinar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative