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DIVINE
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Terms referring to the Judeo-Christian God
Synonyms:
Almighty; Creator; Divine; God Almighty; Godhead; Jehovah; Lord; Maker
Classified under:
Instance hypernyms:
God; Supreme Being (the supernatural being conceived as the perfect and omnipotent and omniscient originator and ruler of the universe; the object of worship in monotheistic religions)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Divine"):
Blessed Trinity; Holy Trinity; Sacred Trinity; Trinity (the union of the Father and Son and Holy Ghost in one Godhead)
hypostasis; hypostasis of Christ (any of the three persons of the Godhead constituting the Trinity especially the person of Christ in which divine and human natures are united)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A clergyman or other person in religious orders
Synonyms:
churchman; cleric; divine; ecclesiastic
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("divine" is a kind of...):
clergyman; man of the cloth; reverend (a member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "divine"):
ordainer (a cleric who ordains; a cleric who admits someone to holy orders)
pardoner (a medieval cleric who raised money for the church by selling papal indulgences)
pluralist (a cleric who holds more than one benefice at a time)
Instance hyponyms:
a Kempis; Thomas a Kempis (German ecclesiastic (1380-1471))
Bruno; Saint Bruno; St. Bruno ((Roman Catholic Church) a French cleric (born in Germany) who founded the Carthusian order in 1084 (1032-1101))
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Being of such surpassing excellence as to suggest inspiration by the gods
Example:
an inspired performance
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Similar:
glorious (having or deserving or conferring glory)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Emanating from God
Example:
everything is black or white...satanic or godly
Synonyms:
divine; godly
Classified under:
Similar:
heavenly (of or belonging to heaven or god)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Being or having the nature of a god
Example:
'Tis wise to learn; 'tis God-like to create
Synonyms:
divine; godlike
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
heavenly (of or belonging to heaven or god)
Derivation:
divinity (any supernatural being worshipped as controlling some part of the world or some aspect of life or who is the personification of a force)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Resulting from divine providence
Example:
a providential visitation
Synonyms:
divine; providential
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
heavenly (of or belonging to heaven or god)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Appropriate to or befitting a god
Example:
man must play God for he has acquired certain godlike powers
Synonyms:
divine; godlike
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
superhuman (above or beyond the human or demanding more than human power or endurance)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Devoted to or in the service or worship of a deity
Example:
divine liturgy
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
sacred (concerned with religion or religious purposes)
Derivation:
divinity (the quality of being divine)
III. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they divine ... he / she / it divines
Past simple: divined
Past participle: divined
-ing form: divining
Sense 1
Meaning:
Search by divining, as if with a rod
Example:
He claimed he could divine underground water
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "divine" is one way to...):
look for; search; seek (try to locate or discover, or try to establish the existence of)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "divine"):
dowse (use a divining rod in search of underground water or metal)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
diviner (someone who claims to discover hidden knowledge with the aid of supernatural powers)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Perceive intuitively or through some inexplicable perceptive powers
Classified under:
Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling
Hypernyms (to "divine" is one way to...):
comprehend; perceive (to become aware of through the senses)
Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "divine"):
chiromance (divine by reading someone's palms)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE
Derivation:
divination (the art or gift of prophecy (or the pretense of prophecy) by supernatural means)
divination (a prediction uttered under divine inspiration)
divinatory (resembling or characteristic of a prophet or prophecy)
diviner (someone who claims to discover hidden knowledge with the aid of supernatural powers)
Context examples:
Divine justice pursued its course; disasters came thick on me: I was forced to pass through the valley of the shadow of death.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Emma divined what every body present must be thinking.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
Here commences a new dominion acquired with a title by divine right.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
The divine afflatus usually lasted a week or two, and then she emerged from her 'vortex', hungry, sleepy, cross, or despondent.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Edmund might, in the common phrase, do the duty of Thornton, that is, he might read prayers and preach, without giving up Mansfield Park: he might ride over every Sunday, to a house nominally inhabited, and go through divine service; he might be the clergyman of Thornton Lacey every seventh day, for three or four hours, if that would content him.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Why he had done it, what could have provoked him to such a breach of hospitality, and so suddenly turned all his partial regard for their daughter into actual ill will, was a matter which they were at least as far from divining as Catherine herself; but it did not oppress them by any means so long; and, after a due course of useless conjecture, that it was a strange business, and that he must be a very strange man, grew enough for all their indignation and wonder; though Sarah indeed still indulged in the sweets of incomprehensibility, exclaiming and conjecturing with youthful ardour.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
She turned towards Lucy in silent amazement, unable to divine the reason or object of such a declaration; and though her complexion varied, she stood firm in incredulity, and felt in no danger of an hysterical fit, or a swoon.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
Both men were plainly the worse of drink, and they were still drinking, for even while I was listening, one of them, with a drunken cry, opened the stern window and threw out something, which I divined to be an empty bottle.
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Her face, too, was streaked with grime, and at the best she could never have been handsome, for she had the exact physical characteristics which Holmes had divined, with, in addition, a long and obstinate chin.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The drug had no discriminating action; it was neither diabolical nor divine; it but shook the doors of the prisonhouse of my disposition; and like the captives of Philippi, that which stood within ran forth.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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