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divestiture

or di·vest·ment

[dih-ves-ti-cher, -choo r or dih-vest-muh nt; dahy-]
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noun
  1. the act of divesting.
  2. the state of being divested.
  3. something, as property or investments, that has been divested: to reexamine the company's acquisitions and divestitures.
  4. Also di·ves·ture [dih-ves-cher, -choo r, dahy-] /dɪˈvɛs tʃər, -tʃʊər, daɪ-/. the sale of business holdings or part of a company, especially under legal compulsion.
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Origin of divestiture

First recorded in 1595–1605; di-2 + (in)vestiture
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for divestiture

Historical Examples

  • This divestiture of sensation proceeds to such an extent that there is nothing left beyond what M. Villey calls the pure form.

    Essays Towards a Theory of Knowledge

    Alexander Philip

  • He is more puzzled over this problem of divestiture than any other, and finds the solution of it only in "sexual selection."

Word Origin and History for divestiture

n.

c.1600, from divest on analogy of investiture. Economics sense is from 1961.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
divestiture in Culture

divestiture

[(deye-ves-tuh-chuhr, deye-ves-tuh-choor)]

The act of a corporation or conglomerate in getting rid of a subsidiary company or division. In a tactic to pressure South Africa to end apartheid, during the 1980s many Americans and Europeans urged divestiture on corporations doing business in South Africa.

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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.