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Showing results for divaricate. Search instead for divaricates.
Synonyms

divaricate

American  
[dahy-var-i-keyt, dih-, dahy-var-uh-kit, -keyt, dih-] / daɪˈvær ɪˌkeɪt, dɪ-, daɪˈvær ə kɪt, -ˌkeɪt, dɪ- /

verb (used without object)

divaricated, divaricating

  1. to spread apart; branch; diverge.

  2. Botany, Zoology. to branch at a wide angle.

adjective

  1. spread apart; widely divergent.

  2. Botany, Zoology. branching at a wide angle.

divaricate British  

verb

  1. (intr) (esp of branches) to diverge at a wide angle

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adjective

  1. branching widely; forked

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • divaricately adverb
  • divaricatingly adverb
  • divarication noun
  • divaricator noun

Etymology

Origin of divaricate

1615–25; < Latin dīvāricātus (past participle of dīvāricāre ), equivalent to dī di- 2 + vāric- (base of vāricāre to straddle; 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.

Colour greyish brown; polypidom 4 to five inches high, much branched, branches irregular, divaricate, rising in great numbers almost immediately from the mass of radical fibres.

From Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850. Including Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, the Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. to Which Is Added the Account of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition for the Exploration of the Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist to the Expedition. — Volume 1 by MacGillivray, John

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

We divaricate so much, as Dr Johnson said.

From James Boswell Famous Scots Series by Leask, W. Keith (William Keith)

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.

The book fell upon her knees, and dreamily she watched the perspective open and divaricate.

From Parrot & Co. by MacGrath, Harold

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.