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Most definitions I find refer to the noun or adjective "divine" as "of or like God" or "very pleasing; delightful" but these definitions do not list the word as a verb.

I can find a definition for "divination", which is the noun for the meaning I'm looking for.

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  • Perhaps you have heard of a "divining rod", supposedly used to divine (that is, find) underground water.
    – GEdgar
    Feb 4, 2014 at 2:28
  • If I right-click on "divination" and select "search in google" I can find several definitions, without even looking for a dictionary as such.
    – Jon Hanna
    Feb 4, 2014 at 2:36
  • Yes, this should be closed. The handful of online dictionaries I visited had the meaning listed as the second meaning of the word. I either missed the links to expand the content or didn't scroll far enough down to see what I was looking for. Haste makes waste.
    – misteraidan
    Feb 5, 2014 at 2:28

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Yes. The usage of divine as a verb to mean 'to discover' or 'intuit' or even, yes 'practice divination' is perfectly acceptable and useful and should be found in most better dictionaries.

However, it is less common than the religious, noun definition, so you'll need to skip past a number of unrelated uses. For instance, Merriam Websters has it listed last of three.

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    Historically it is a religious sense too, since it comes from "be inspired by god" as it applied to the divining done.
    – Jon Hanna
    Feb 4, 2014 at 2:36

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