v. Also 7 bissect. [Apparently of Eng. formation, from bi-, bis- two + sect- ppl. stem of secāre to cut: cf. intersect, etc.]
1. trans. To cut or divide into two equal parts. (The earlier and usual sense.)
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 292. The rationall Horizon … bissecteth the Globe into equall parts.
1660. Barrow, Euclid, I. x. To bisect a right line.
1879. A. R. Wallace, Australasia, wxvii. 347. The island [i.e., Borneo] is nearly bisected by the equator.
2. To cut in two, divide into any two parts.
1789. Bentham, Princ. Legisl., xviii. § 56. The logical whole … has been bisected in as many different directions as were necessary.
1853. Grote, Greece, II. lxxxv. XI. 249. Attacking them while thus disarrayed and bisected by the river.
3. intr. To divide in two; to fork.
1870. Daily News, 5 Oct., 6/4. On the chaussée just before it bisects, is a village named Belle-Croix.
