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Divide vs Scatter - What's the difference?

divide | scatter |

In lang=en terms the difference between divide and scatter

is that divide is to separate into two or more parts while scatter is to occur or fall at widely spaced intervals.

As verbs the difference between divide and scatter

is that divide is to split or separate (something) into two or more parts while scatter is (ergative) to (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse.

As a noun divide

is a thing that divides.

divide

English

Verb

(divid)
  • To split or separate (something) into two or more parts.
    • a wall divides''' two houses; a stream '''divides the towns
  • * Bible, 1 Kings iii. 25
    • Divide the living child in two.
  • To share (something) by dividing it.
  • * Spenser
    • true justice unto people to divide
  • (arithmetic) To calculate the number (the quotient) by which you must multiply one given number (the divisor) to produce a second given number (the dividend).
  • (arithmetic) To be a divisor of.
  • To separate into two or more parts.
  • (biology) Of a cell, to reproduce by dividing.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, and that in several cases these bacteria were dividing and thus, by the perverse arithmetic of biological terminology, multiplying.}}
  • To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance.
  • * Bible, Mark iii. 24
    • If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
  • * Prescott
    • Every family became now divided within itself.
  • (obsolete) To break friendship; to fall out.
  • * 1605 , , I. ii. 107:
    • love cools, friendship / falls off, brothers divide .
  • (obsolete) To have a share; to partake.
  • * 1608 , , I. vi. 87:
    • Make good this ostentation, and you shall / Divide in all with us.
  • To vote, as in the British Parliament, by the members separating themselves into two parties (as on opposite sides of the hall or in opposite lobbies), that is, the ayes dividing from the noes.
  • * Gibbon
    • The emperors sat, voted, and divided with their equals.
  • To mark divisions on; to graduate.
    • to divide a sextant
  • (music) To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations.
    • (Spenser)

    Synonyms

    * (split into two or more parts) cut up, disunite, partition, split, split up * (share by dividing) divvy up, divide up, share, share out * (separate into two or more parts) separate, shear, split, split up

    Antonyms

    * (split into two or more parts) combine, merge, unify, unite * (calculate times of multiplication) multiply

    Related terms

    * dividend * division * divisor *

    See also

    * quotient * separate

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A thing that divides.
    • Stay on your side of the divide , please.
  • An act of dividing.
    • The divide left most of the good land on my share of the property.
  • A distancing between two people or things.
    • There is a great divide between us.
  • (geography) A large chasm, gorge, or ravine between two areas of land.
    • If you're heading to the coast, you'll have to cross the divide first.
    ----

    scatter

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (ergative) To (cause to) separate and go in different directions; to disperse.
    • the police scattered the crowds
    the crowd scattered
  • * Shakespeare
    • Scatter and disperse the giddy Goths.
  • To distribute loosely as by sprinkling.
    • Her ashes were scattered at the top of a waterfall.
  • * Dryden
    • Why should my muse enlarge on Libyan swains, / Their scattered cottages, and ample plains?
  • (physics) To deflect (radiation or particles).
  • To occur or fall at widely spaced intervals.
  • To frustrate, disappoint, and overthrow.
    • to scatter hopes or plans

    Derived terms

    * scatterbrain * scatterplot * scattershot