See Also: division(dictionary)
DIVISION, Eng(law)
Division(medicine)
division(dictionary)
HCA Midwest Division(health)
BENEFIT OF DIVISION(law)
BERGEN DIVISION(finance)
Division of Labor(money)
second meiotic division(medicine)
reduction division(medicine)

division (iou)



division noun. LME.
[Old French devisiun, di- (mod. division) from Latin divisio(n-), from divis- pa. ppl stem of dividere DIVIDE verb: see -ION.]
I. An action or condition.
The action of dividing or state of being divided into parts or branches; separation, partition; severance; an instance of this. LME.
C. Caudwell The very division of industrial capitalism from agricultural capitalism has..separated the country from the town. R. Hoggart There is a rough division of material into three themes. M. L. King The..division of India and Pakistan shattered his heart's desire for a united nation.
b. (Also Division.) The separation of the members of a legislative body etc. into two groups in voting. M16.
c. The splitting of the roots of a perennial plant into parts to be replanted separately, as a means of propagation. E19.
The action of distributing among a number; distribution, sharing; an instance of this. LME.
division of labour the assigning of different parts of a job or manufacturing process etc. to different people.
The action or an act of distinguishing, or of perceiving or making a difference; (a) distinction. LME-E17.
The fact of being divided in opinion, sentiment, or interest; dissension, discord; an instance of this, a disagreement. LME.
A. F. Douglas-Home Not to allow any division in the Cabinet which could be represented as a split on..policy.
Math. The action or process of dividing one quantity by another; a method of doing this. LME.
long division a method of division in which intermediate stages of the calculation are written down as it is made (used with divisors greater than 12). short division a method of division in which the quotient is written down directly (used with divisors up to 12).
Logic. The action of dividing a wider class into two or more kinds or classes; enumeration of the parts of a whole or of the meanings of a term. M16.
Music. The execution of a rapid melodic passage, esp. by dividing each of a succession of long notes into several short ones; a florid phrase or melody; spec. a variation (usu. improvised) on an accompanying melody. Now Hist. L16.
b. fig. Variation. rare (Shakes.). Only in E17.
Shakespeare Macbeth The king-becoming graces,..I have no relish of them; but abound In the division of each several crime, Acting it many ways.
Disposition, arrangement. rare (Shakes.). Only in E17.
II. A cause or result of dividing.
Something that divides or marks separation; a dividing line or mark; a boundary; a partition. LME.
E. Rutherford The maximum excursion of the needle..being not more than three scale divisions.
b. At Cambridge University, the date that divides the term into two halves. E19.
Each of the parts into which something is or may be divided; a portion, a section. LME.
F. Smyth Over the years, more divisions of blood type..have been discovered. Practical Gardening Divide and transplant border perennials,..only replanting the strongest, healthiest divisions.
b. Any of several major parts into which an organization, esp. an army, is divided; spec. a group of Army brigades or regiments; a portion of a ship's company assigned to a particular service (in pl., the parade of a ship's company according to its divisions); a group of (esp. soccer) teams within a league between which fixtures are arranged. L16.
Family Division: see FAMILY.
c. A portion of a country, county, etc., marked off for some political, administrative, judicial, etc., purpose; spec. a part of a county or borough returning a Member of Parliament. M17.
d. Biology. A section of a taxonomic grouping; Botany a basic taxonomic grouping ranking above class and below kingdom, equivalent to a phylum; Zoology a subsidiary category between major levels of classification. M19.
e. Hist. Either of the two or three categories of imprisonment without hard labour or penal servitude to which an offender could be sentenced. M19.
Aldous Huxley The appeal..won't..do any good except perhaps to change his six months from second to first division.
Comb.: division-bell: rung to announce an imminent parliamentary division; division lobby: see LOBBY noun 3a; division sign the sign , placed between two quantities to denote that the one preceding the sign is to be divided by the one following it.
divisionary adjective (rare) divisional M17.