divaricate
Americanverb (used without object)
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to spread apart; branch; diverge.
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Botany, Zoology. to branch at a wide angle.
adjective
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spread apart; widely divergent.
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Botany, Zoology. branching at a wide angle.
verb
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of divaricate
1615–25; < Latin dīvāricātus (past participle of dīvāricāre ), equivalent to dī di- 2 + vāric- (base of vāricāre to straddle; see prevaricate) + -ātus -ate 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Very similar, but smoother and deeper green, with more slender, linear-cylindric, more or less flexuous spikes, the lateral ones spreading or divaricate, and the sepals more frequently acute or acuminate.
From The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Including the District East of the Mississippi and North of North Carolina and Tennessee by Gray, Asa
The book fell upon her knees, and dreamily she watched the perspective open and divaricate.
From Parrot & Co. by MacGrath, Harold
Parasitic upon Polyzoa, etc. circinate branched--branches irregular divaricate.
The former is a tall plant with very narrow panicle and spikelets and the latter either tall or short and with a panicle bearing very slender divaricate branches.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.
Stems are many, tufted, slender, creeping and rooting, or ascending and suberect, simple or branched, 6 to 20 inches long and leafy and leaves bifarious and divaricate.
From A Handbook of Some South Indian Grasses by Rangachari, K.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
