divine

comparative more divine · superlative most divine · alternative Divine

1. Of or pertaining to a god.

   a divine being

   1 more example

   divine existence

   Synonyms: deific, godlike, godly · Antonyms: undivine, ungodly

2. Eternal, holy, or otherwise godlike.

   divine power

   Synonyms: hallowed, holy, sacred, blessed, celestial, devoutful, hallowed, heavenly · Antonyms: godless, secular, ungodly

3. Of superhuman or surpassing excellence.

   divine skill

   1 more example

   Divine decadence darling!

   1972, Jay Presson Allen, Cabaret, spoken by Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli)

   Synonyms: supreme, ultimate · Antonyms: humdrum, mediocre, ordinary

4. Beautiful, heavenly.

   Synonyms: beautiful, delightful, exquisite, heavenly, lovely, wonderful, attractive, beauteous · Antonyms: horrible, horrid, nasty, unpleasant

5. obsoleteForeboding; prescient.

   Yet oft his heart, divine of something ill, / Misgave him.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VIII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   Synonyms: inauspicious, portentous, augurous, baleful, bodeful, boding, dire, disastrous

6. obsoleteimmortal; elect or saved after death

   (Of that at leaſure) but the bloody ſtage On which to act, Generall this night is thine, Thou lyeſt downe mortall, who muſt riſe diuine.

   1632, Thomas Heywood, The Iron Age, Part 2

   2 more examples

   Now Thomas Mowbray do I turne to thee, And marke my greeting well: for what I ſpeake, My body ſhall make good vpon this earth, Or my diuine ſoule anſwer it in heauen.

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i], page 23, column 1

   Then rouſe up, my Divine Soul, who art ready for Eternal Glory, and bid the World a final A-dieu, with all its fond Deluſions and gilded Baits of Folly: For the time is now at hand, when thou my moſt precious Jewel, muſt launch out into the Deep of Everlaſting Bliſs

   1703, Charles Povey, Meditations of a Divine Soul: Or, the Chriſtian’s Guide, Amidſt the Various Opinions of a vain World, page 594

   Synonyms: blessed, elect, saved

7. Relating to divinity or theology.

   church history and other divine learning

   1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London

plural divines

1. One skilled in divinity; a theologian.

   Poets were the first divines.

   1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning

   Synonyms: clergyman, cleric, man of the cloth, theologian, deity, god, God, Allah

2. A minister of the gospel; a priest; a clergyman.

   December 22, 1820, John Woodbridge, Sermon preached in Hadley in commemoration of the landing our fathers at Plymouth The first divines of New England […] were surpassed by none in extensive erudition.

3. capitalizedoftenGod or a god, particularly in its aspect as a transcendental concept.

present singular third person divines · participle present divining · participle past divined · past divined

1. transitiveTo foretell (something), especially by the use of divination.

   Darest thou […] divine his downfall?

   1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]

   1 more example

   a sagacity which divined the evil designs

   1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC

2. transitiveTo guess or discover (something) through intuition or insight.

   no secret can be told To any who divined it not before

   1874, James Thomson, The City of Dreadful Night

   3 more examples

   If in the loneliness of his studio he wrestled desperately with the Angel of the Lord he never allowed a soul to divine his anguish.

   1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 43”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC

   From time to time Mr. Big would have her brought over to the room where Bond had seen him. There she would be told to divine whether some man or woman, generally bound to the chair, was lying or not.

   1954, Ian Fleming, “The Everglades”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 122

   I suppose that we truly are divining that what is is some third thing when we say that change and stability are.

   2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, 250c

3. transitiveTo search for (underground objects or water) using a divining rod.
4. To render divine; to deify.

   Living on earth like angel new divined.

   1591, Ed[mund] Sp[enser], Daphnaïda. An Elegy upon the Death of the Noble and Vertuous Douglas Howard,Daughter and Heire of Henry Lord Howard, Viscount Byndon, and Wife of Arthure Gorges Esquier. […], London: […] [Thomas Orwin] for William Ponsonby, […], →OCLC

plural Divines

1. A surname.

comparative more Divine · superlative most Divine

1. Alternative letter-case form of divine.

   My mind was never in a holier frame, than while I gazed on that untroubled image of Divine rest.

   1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter II, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume II, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 23

   2 more examples

   The love of your neighbor as yourself, is expressly given as the definition and test of Charity,—not alms-giving,—and this love is not only declared to be the highest of all the Divine commands, but also to be the only true test of love to God.

   1864, [Charles Tennant], “Conclusion”, in Utilitarianism Explained and Exemplified in Moral and Political Government, London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, page 389

   A man was permitted to think as he pleased about the Bible; but it was accounted blasphemy to whisper a suspicion that any clause in the American Constitution was not written by Divine inspiration.

   1866 June, an American, “Anomalies of the American Constitution”, in Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country, volume LXXIII, number CCCCXXXVIII, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., page 717, column 2