noun

• 1A person or thing that divides a whole into parts.

  ‘They feed on it because they would love to divide it and there are people like that I've always called the dividers.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘We need an environment for independent media as the unifiers, not dividers, of society.’
  • ‘During the presidential campaign, he vowed, ‘I'm a uniter, not a divider.’’
  • ‘As a postscript, I just find it interesting that the big theme seems to be that he is a divider.’
  • ‘Time and time again I would see one of the protests I attended on the news, them making us look like the dividers.’
  • ‘We will have to rearrange the traffic islands, signal lights and road dividers to implement the rule.’
  • ‘The highway had concrete dividers, for crying out loud!’
  • ‘Roads will be properly illuminated to avoid accidents, especially for the two-wheeler riders who bump into road dividers, he said.’
  • ‘This is a simple division, of course, but the natural dividers need to be either parks or rivers and regions to share the same characteristics.’
  • ‘First, there's the reality of people sleeping on road dividers.’
  • ‘Better yet, removing the dividers instantly transforms the Mini into a portable beer cooler, though that's not in the manufacturer's instruction booklet.’
  • ‘The lawn part no longer has any lawn, but it's now framed with wavy brick-type dividers which, I'm told, will also help with the erosion problem.’
  • ‘Sculpted from wooden strips separated by thin aluminum dividers, each panel consists of an array of wells of equal width but different depths.’
  • ‘The apparatus consisted of a cooler fitted with a screened divider separating ice and water.’
  • ‘They function as partitions, screens, dividers or the means by which an entire garden is unified.’
  • ‘Both sections one and three consist of separate poems, while the middle section seems to be one piece separated by dividers signalling individual chapters.’

  1. 1.1A screen or piece of furniture that divides a room into two parts.
     ‘This mosquito barrier also serves as a flexible room divider between the kitchen and the other living areas.’
     More example sentences

     • ‘A focal point is the Craftsman-inspired room divider that functions as a bookcase on one side and bench on the other.’
     • ‘Eric stood next to the room divider that separated the item shop and the bar.’
     • ‘Or use your room divider to add a separation to a large living room and dining room combo.’
     • ‘Properly placed in a larger room, it can become a room divider screen or simply a focal point.’
     • ‘There is about 1 foot of space between the table and the short divider wall that separates us from the bar.’
     • ‘Freestanding room screens or dividers that have slots or elastic lacing for photos.’
     • ‘The long bench tables have movable bamboo fan dividers to separate the different groups of diners to also afford an air of privacy.’
     • ‘Fine aluminum mesh screens form luminous gray dividers between a gallery space and offices.’
     • ‘I'm moving offices in four days, to a hellish corner with no windows and very, very high desk dividers.’
     • ‘The kitchen island is also a divider, separating the cooking area from the dining space without blocking sight lines.’
     • ‘Elsewhere in the house, freestanding cabinets also act as room dividers.’
     • ‘The living room and kitchen were on the opposite ends of one large open room, with no dividers or doors separating the two spaces.’
     • ‘White turned his head so he could see the experimenters through the glass divider which separated the chamber from the recording instruments.’
     • ‘Mahogany dividers split up cubicles, and blue and green tinted glass lit the early public conveniences’ more murky corners.’
     • ‘He created stable dividers, frontages and door grilles for the livery, all designed specially in line with the customer's specific requirements.’
     • ‘As Olson walks through the office, the fast-multiplying staff peek over their office dividers.’
     • ‘The bamboo dividers in the dining room provide a feeling of intimacy.’
     • ‘Subsequently they will ask the corporation to put up at least three-inch dividers.’
     • ‘All the dividers, parcel shelf and the false floor can be completely removed if the whole space is required.’
     Synonyms

     screen, divider, room divider, dividing wall, barrier, wall, fence, panel, separator
  2. 1.2An issue on which opinions are divided.
     ‘on the Labour side, the big divider was still nuclear weapons’
     More example sentences

     • ‘I see a difference and I think it has basically to do with the abortion issue and the perception of the abortion issue as a divider.’
     • ‘It seems this last one is a real opinion divider.’
     • ‘The cultural and political dividers between Europe and the US are second-order issues.’
     • ‘Indeed, TBTN and similar forms of activism are becoming construed more as community dividers than builders.’

• 2dividersA measuring compass, especially one with a screw for making fine adjustments.

  ‘The little kids did not like what we said and had their compasses and dividers out, ready to give us a poke so we scooted out.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘In a corner of the lunette depicting Solomon Sitting in Judgment is a figure of a seated man holding a pair of dividers and examining a drawing.’
  • ‘A pair of dividers, which is a weaker tool than a compass, enables one to transfer distances.’
  • ‘‘Like a person using a pair of giant dividers,’ observed Ken.’
  • ‘It certainly doesn't hurt that both Dürer's central figure and one of Homer's men each hold dividers.’