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
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.
See Examples For:
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.
V. diverge, divaricate, radiate; ramify; branch off, glance off, file off; fly off, fly off at a tangent; spread, scatter, disperse &c.
From Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Roget, Peter Mark
While they run on together, the closest translation may be considered as the best; but when they divaricate, each must take its natural course.
From Lives of the Poets, Volume 1 by Johnson, Samuel
Divergent: spreading out from a common base; in Coleoptera, tarsal claws are divergent when they spread out only a little; divaricate when they separate widely.
From Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology by Smith, John. B.
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.
I now, in this hasty, feeble, and divaricated biographical sketch, approach the great and favourite work of my admired friend, The History of British Birds.
From The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 14, No. 389, September 12, 1829 by Various
Tail short, slightly divaricated; olive, with whitish marginal tips.
From Zoological Illustrations, Volume I or Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals by Swainson, William
The talk itself was far more desultory, and in consequence of questions, objections, and explanations, divaricated much from the comparatively direct line I have endeavoured to give it here.
From Wilfrid Cumbermede by MacDonald, George
Cardinal teeth small, fragile, variable in number, and rarely divaricated.
From Zoological Illustrations, Volume I or Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals by Swainson, William
Tail four inches from the base, slightly divaricated, and of twelve feathers.
From Zoological Illustrations, Volume I or Original Figures and Descriptions of New, Rare, or Interesting Animals by Swainson, William
I would like in a parenthetical section to expand and render rather more concrete this idea of the species as one divaricating flow of blood, by an appeal to its arithmetical aspect.
From First and Last Things by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)
Very much branched, tan-colored, then ochraceous; trunk slender, villous, rooting; branches flexuous, having many divisions, branches of the same color, divaricating, fragile.
From The Mushroom, Edible and Otherwise Its Habitat and its Time of Growth by Hard, Miron Elisha
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.
