separate

Verb

separate (third-person singular simple present separates, present participle separating, simple past and past participle separated)

1. (transitive) To divide (a thing) into separate parts.

   Synonyms: partition, split; see also Thesaurus:divide

   Separate the articles from the headings.

   • 2007 March 14, Emma Marris, “The Species and the Specious”, in Nature‎, number 446:

     Ant taxonomists have decided that anything that's worth separating should be separated at the species level, and have no truck with subspecies at all. Butterfly taxonomists, however, like the triple-barrelled name approach and dote on subspecies. As a result, the numbers of ant species and butterfly species are not directly comparable.

   • 2008, Kshudiram Saha, The Earth's Atmosphere: Its Physics and Dynamics, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 102:

     The mesosphere may be described as the earth's intermediate or middle atmosphere, which separates the thermosphere above from the ozonosphere (or stratosphere) below, both of which are responsible for absorption of most of the ultraviolet part of the solar radiation and preventing it from reaching the earth's surface.

2. (transitive) To disunite from a group or mass; to disconnect.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:disjoin

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Romans 8:35:

     Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

   • 1683, John Dryden, The Art of Poetry:

     From the fine gold I separate the allay [alloy].

   • 1832, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Heath's Book of Beauty, 1833, The Talisman, page 66:

     There must be some deep-rooted anti-social principle in every man's nature, so dearly does he love aught that separates him from his kind; or is it but one of the many shapes taken by that mental kaleidoscope, vanity, the varying and the glittering, the desire of distinction, sinking into that of notice?

3. (transitive) To cause (things or people) to be separate.

   Synonyms: split up, tear apart

   If the kids get too noisy, separate them for a few minutes.

   • 2013 June 7, David Simpson, “Fantasy of navigation”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 26, page 36:

     It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […];  […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.

4. (intransitive) To divide itself into separate pieces or substances.

   Synonyms: break down, come apart, disintegrate, fall apart

   The sauce will separate if you don't keep stirring.

5. (obsolete) To set apart; to select from among others, as for a special use or service.

   Synonyms: earmark, sepose; see also Thesaurus:set apart

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 13:2:

     Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

Adjective

separate (not comparable)

1. Apart from (the rest); not connected to or attached to (anything else).

   This chair can be disassembled into five separate pieces.

   • 2002, Joan L. Bybee, Michael Noonan, Complex Sentences in Grammar and Discourse, page 152:

     Syntactically, hendiadic constructions differ from synthetonic sequences in that the latter are separate clauses, and hence are separately negatable and may have different tenses and aspects and different subjects.

2. (followed by “from”) Not together (with); not united (to).

   I try to keep my personal life separate from work.

Noun

separate (plural separates)

1. (usually in the plural) Anything that is sold by itself, especially articles of clothing such as blouses, skirts, jackets, and pants.
   • 2017 October 2, Jess Cartner-Morle, “Stella McCartney lays waste to disposable fashion in Paris”, in the Guardian‎:

     French taffeta evening separates – a puffball skirt, and a ruffled blouse – were pressed flat to drag them up to date.

2. (bibliography) A printing of an article from a periodical as its own distinct publication and distributed independently, often with different page numbers.

See also