See Also: Separate(medicine)
separate(2)(dictionary)
separate(1)(dictionary)
Separate Property(law)
SEPARATE ESTATE(law)
separate 2, verb(dictionary)
separate 1, adjective(dictionary)
Separate tax returns(finance)
Separate customer(finance)
Separate tax returns(money)

separate(2) (iou)



separate verb. LME.
[Latin separat- pa. ppl stem of separare, formed as SE- + parare make ready: see -ATE3.]
I. verb trans.
a. Put apart, disunite, part, (two or more persons or things, or one from another); detach, disconnect, treat as distinct, (one thing); make a division between (two things). Also, divide into component parts. LME.
separate the men from the boys: see MAN noun. separate the sheep from the goats: see GOAT noun. separate the wheat from the chaff: see CHAFF noun1.
R. Macaulay I'm sorry you two will be separated. Quilting Today To make the hair, separate the yarn into strands. refl.: P. Mailloux In becoming a writer he has separated himself from ordinary life.
b. Discharge (a person) from the armed forces, the police, etc.; dismiss from employment. US. M19.
Cause (a married couple) to cease living together, esp. by judicial separation. L15.
a. Remove or extract (a substance) from another with which it is combined or mixed, esp. by a technical process. L15.
b. Of a gland: secrete. Of a material substance: give off or emit from itself. L17-E19.
a. Put on one side or segregate for a special purpose; devote to. Chiefly in biblical use. E16.
H. Prideaux Whoever of the ancient Patriarchs first separated a Tenth.
b. Exclude, prohibit. rare. L16-M17.
Prevent union, contact, or connection between; part by occupying an intervening space. M16.
L. Durrell I found myself separated from that forgotten evening by centuries. M. McCarthy The dinette, which was separated from the kitchen by a..folding door.
Divide into two or more parts. rare. L16.
II. verb intrans.
Cause a rift between. rare. M16-M17.
a. Leave the company or society of another or others, withdraw; part from; secede from a Church. M16.
b. Of two or more people: leave each other's company, disperse; (of a married couple) cease to live together as man and wife. L17.
B. Bainbridge Her parents didn't know anybody who had even separated, let alone divorced.
G. W. Target The pair..separated at the bottom of the stairs.
a. Of a thing: draw away (from something else); become disconnected or detached; become divided into. M17.
John Bull The roof of the nave has separated..from the wall. Omni The fingers themselves separate into even smaller fingers.
b. Of a substance: become physically distinct from the material containing it, spec. form a precipitate; (also foll. by out). Of a liquid: change from being homogeneous to consisting of two or more layers of different composition. M19.
G. Fownes The salt separates in minute crystals. Guardian Single cream will separate during long slow cooking.
With adverbs in specialized senses: separate off treat as distinct. separate out make separate, isolate; extract; (see also sense 9b above).