what does divided mean

When a recipe says in the list of ingredients that something is divided it means that that item is not used completely in one step.  If you read through the recipe it should say, given the example 12 T butter, to use 8 T butter in step one and then later in the recipe to use the remaining 4 T butter in step 5.

I have a recipe for brown sugar cookies that the bulk of the butter is browned, but a few tablespoons are held back to be added to the recipe later.  Some recipe writers state the division up front while others state it as the recipe is written.