I. To rend asunder, to tear in pieces, to separate violently, to tear (class.; cf.: findo, scindo, dirimo, segrego, secerno).

A. Lit.: res a natura copulatas audebit divellere, Cic. Off. 3, 18 fin.: corpus, et undis spargere, Verg. A. 4, 600; so, corpus, Ov. M. 4, 112: agnam, Hor. S. 1, 8, 27; cf.: suos artus lacero morsu, Ov. M. 8, 878: membra, id. Tr. 3, 9, 27; id. M. 13, 865 et saep.: magnos montes manibus, i. e. to cleave, Lucr. 1, 202; cf.: mediam partem quercus (with discidere), Gell. 15, 16, 3: nodos manibus, to untie, Verg. A. 2, 220: paenulam sentibus, Suet. Ner. 48: nubem, Lucr. 6, 203; cf.: moenia mundi, id. 6, 122.—

B. Trop., to tear violently apart, remove, destroy, sunder: commoda civium, Cic. Off. 2, 23, 82: rem dissolutam divulsamque conglutinare, id. de Or. 1, 41, 188; cf. id. ib. 3, 6, 24: affinitas divelli nullo modo poterat, to be dissolved, destroyed, id. Quint. 6, 25; cf. amicitiam, Sen. Ep. 6; and: amorem querimoniis, Hor. C. 1, 13, 19: somnos (cura), id. Ep. 1, 10, 18: distineor et divellor dolore, am distracted, Cic. Planc. 33, 79.—

II. (Like distraho, II.) To tear away, separate, remove from something (class.).

A. Lit.: membra divellere ac distrahere, Cic. Sull. 20 fin.: aliquem ab aliquo, id. Cat. 2, 10, 22; id. Mil. 36: liberos a parentum complexu, Sall. C. 51, 9; for which: aliquem dulci amplexu, Verg. A. 8, 568; cf.: Damalin adultero, Hor. C. 1, 36, 19: nec me umquam Gyas (sc. a te), id. ib. 2, 17, 15.—

B. Trop.: sapientiam, temperantiam, a voluptate divellere ac distrahere, Cic. Fin. 1, 16, 50. —So of persons, to draw away from one in feeling, to estrange: qui a me mei servatorem capitis divellat ac distrahat, Cic. Planc. 42, 102.