<p><strong>Noun:</strong></p><ul><li>the act of legally ending a marriage: Compare judicial separation.</li><li>any formal separation of spouses according to established custom.</li><li>the act of legally ending a formal contract before its term is up, especially in professional sports: If there’s a personality clash between the player and the manager, divorce may be the only way out.</li><li>a total separation between two things; disunion: Activists denounced the divorce between thought and action when it came to protecting human rights.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used with object):</strong></p><ul><li>to legally end the marriage contract between oneself and (one's spouse): She divorced her husband.</li><li>to permanently separate (a couple) through a judicial declaration that ends their marriage contract: The judge divorced the couple.</li><li>to separate or cut off: His view of the situation has become totally divorced from reality.</li></ul><p><strong>Synonyms:</strong></p><ul><li>disjoin, detach, sever, disconnect, divide, dissociate, rupture, disjunction, dissolution, breakup, annulment.</li></ul>