adjective , verb
■ adjective / ˈseprət; NAmE /
1.
separate (from sth/sb) forming a unit by itself; not joined to sth else :
separate bedrooms
Raw meat must be kept separate from cooked meat.
The school is housed in two separate buildings.
2.
[ usually before noun ] different; not connected :
It happened on three separate occasions.
For the past three years they have been leading totally separate lives.
► sep·ar·ate·ness noun [ U , sing. ]:
Japan's long-standing sense of separateness and uniqueness
•
IDIOMS
- go your separate ways
—more at cover noun
■ verb / ˈsepəreɪt/
1.
~ (sth) (from / and sth) to divide into different parts or groups; to divide things into different parts or groups :
[ v ]
Stir the sauce constantly so that it does not separate.
[ vn ]
It is impossible to separate belief from emotion.
Separate the eggs (= separate the yolk from the white) .
Make a list of points and separate them into 'desirable' and 'essential'.
2.
~ sb/sth (from / and sb/sth) to move apart; to make people or things move apart :
[ v ]
We separated into several different search parties.
South America separated from Africa 200 million years ago.
South America and Africa separated 200 million years ago.
[ vn ]
Police tried to separate the two men who were fighting.
The war separated many families.
Those suffering from infectious diseases were separated from the other patients.
3.
[ vn ] ~ sb (from / and sb) to be between two people, areas, countries, etc. so that they are not touching or connected :
A thousand kilometres separates the two cities.
A high wall separated our back yard from the playing field.
4.
[ v ] ~ (from sb) to stop living together as a couple with your husband, wife or partner :
He separated from his wife after 20 years of marriage.
They separated last year.
5.
[ vn ] ~ sb/sth (from sb/sth) to make sb/sth different in some way from sb/sth else
SYN divide :
Politics is the only thing that separates us (= that we disagree about) .
The judges found it impossible to separate the two contestants (= they gave them equal scores) .
Only four points separate the top three teams.
•
IDIOMS
see man noun , sheep , wheat
•
PHRASAL VERBS
- separate out | separate sth out
••
WORD ORIGIN
late Middle English : from Latin separat- disjoined, divided, from the verb separare , from se- apart + parare prepare.