cut up vs divide

cut up

verb
  • To cut into smaller pieces, parts, or sections. 

  • To lacerate; to wound by multiple lacerations; to injure or damage by cutting, or as if by cutting. 

  • To move aggressively in front of another vehicle while driving. 

  • To behave like a clown or jokester (a cut-up); to misbehave; to act in a playful, comical, boisterous, or unruly manner to elicit laughter, attention, etc. 

  • Comprise a particular selection of runners. 

  • To distress mentally or emotionally. 

  • To disintegrate; to break into pieces. 

adj
  • Emotionally upset; mentally distressed. 

  • Muscular and lean. 

  • Wounded with multiple lacerations. 

  • Having been cut into smaller pieces. 

divide

verb
  • To split or separate (something) into two or more parts. 

  • To vote, as in the British parliament and other legislatures, 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. 

  • To share (something) by dividing it. 

  • To separate into two or more parts. 

  • To mark divisions on; to graduate. 

  • To calculate the number (the quotient) by which you must multiply one given number (the divisor) to produce a second given number (the dividend). 

  • To play or sing in a florid style, or with variations. 

  • To disunite in opinion or interest; to make discordant or hostile; to set at variance. 

  • To be a divisor of. 

  • Of a cell, to reproduce by dividing. 

noun
  • An act of dividing. 

  • A distancing between two people or things. 

  • A large chasm, gorge, or ravine between two areas of land. 

  • The topographical boundary dividing two adjacent catchment basins, such as a ridge or a crest. 

  • A thing that divides. 

How often have the words cut up and divide occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )