It could be your wine portfolio, your stake in a mining company, or even the extra coats that are taking up space in your closet. Whatever it is, when you divest something, you get rid of it.

Pronunciation: /daɪ'vɛst/
English Description: take into one's possession
Chinese Translation: 掺假(can1 jia3)
Spanish Translation: desinvertir
STORY: Divest is sort of a fancy way to say “dispose of.” It’s often used in a business context to describe companies or governments that divest some of their holdings by selling them off. It can also be used in the sense of taking something away from someone. For example if your boss becomes insane and power mad, his handlers may divest him of his title, meaning his position is taken away from him.

EXAMPLE SENTENCE:

Efforts to slim down its sprawling portfolio have prompted questions of whether the company could divest its U.S. frozen foods business.
More than 50 of the world’s leading doctors and health researchers called on charities to divest from fossil fuel companies in an open letter Thursday.

*New word description, story and part of "EXAMPLE SENTENCE" are cited in Vocabulary.com