The present participle of devest; the act of removing clothing or stripping someone of rights or possessions.
Gerund form of devest, from Old French devester. The -ing suffix transforms the verb into a noun form or continuous action descriptor.
Devesting appears in legal language from the Middle Ages through Shakespeare's time—you can find it describing both the literal removal of royal robes and the symbolic removal of a lord's authority. It's a word that captures both physical and abstract loss.
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