separate

—separately, adv. —separateness, n.

v. /sep"euh rayt'/; adj., n. /sep"euhr it/, v., separated, separating, adj., n.

v.t.

1. to keep apart or divide, as by an intervening barrier or space: to separate two fields by a fence.

2. to put, bring, or force apart; part: to separate two fighting boys.

3. to set apart; disconnect; dissociate: to separate church and state.

4. to remove or sever from association, service, etc., esp. legally or formally: He was separated from the army right after V-E Day.

5. to sort, part, divide, or disperse (an assemblage, mass, compound, etc.), as into individual units, components, or elements.

6. to take by parting or dividing; extract (usually fol. by from or out): to separate metal from ore.

7. Math. to write (the variables of a differential equation) in a form in which the differentials of the independent and dependent variables are, respectively, functions of these variables alone: We can separate the variables to solve the equation. Cf. separation of variables.

v.i.

8. to part company; withdraw from personal association (often fol. by from): to separate from a church.

9. (of a married pair) to stop living together but without getting a divorce.

10. to draw or come apart; become divided, disconnected, or detached.

11. to become parted from a mass or compound: Cream separates from milk.

12. to take or go in different directions: We have to separate at the crossroad.

adj.

13. detached, disconnected, or disjoined.

14. unconnected; distinct; unique: two separate questions.

15. being or standing apart; distant or dispersed: two separate houses; The desert has widely separate oases.

16. existing or maintained independently: separate organizations.

17. individual or particular: each separate item.

18. not shared; individual or private: separate checks; separate rooms.

19. (sometimes cap.) noting or pertaining to a church or other organization no longer associated with the original or parent organization.

n.

20. Usually, separates. women's outer garments that may be worn in combination with a variety of others to make different ensembles, as matching and contrasting blouses, skirts, and sweaters.

21. offprint (def. 1).

22. a bibliographical unit, as an article, chapter, or other portion of a larger work, printed from the same type but issued separately, sometimes with additional pages.

[1400-50; late ME (n. and adj.) < L separatus (ptp. of separare), equiv. to se- SE- + par(are) to furnish, produce, obtain, PREPARE + -atus -ATE¹]

Syn. 1, 2. sever, sunder, split. SEPARATE, DIVIDE imply a putting apart or keeping apart of things from each other. To SEPARATE is to remove from each other things previously associated: to separate a mother from her children. To DIVIDE is to split or break up carefully according to measurement, rule, or plan: to divide a cake into equal parts. 3. disjoin, disengage. 13. unattached, severed, discrete. 15. secluded, isolated. 16. independent.

Ant. 1-3. unite, connect.

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