Adjacent Words

Isolate definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

IS'OLATE, v.t. To place in a detached situation; to place by itself; to insulate.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: place or set apart; "They isolated the political prisoners from the other inmates" [syn: isolate, insulate]
2: obtain in pure form; "The chemist managed to isolate the compound"
3: set apart from others; "The dentist sequesters the tooth he is working on" [syn: sequester, sequestrate, keep apart, set apart, isolate]
4: separate (experiences) from the emotions relating to them

Merriam Webster's

I. transitive verb (-lated; -lating) Etymology: back-formation from isolated set apart, from French isolé, from Italian isolato, from isola island, from Latin insula Date: 1799 1. to set apart from others; also quarantine 2. to select from among others; especially to separate from another substance so as to obtain pure or in a free state 3. insulate • isolator noun II. adjective Date: 1819 being alone ; solitary, isolated III. noun Date: 1890 1. an individual, population, strain, or culture obtained by or resulting from selection or separation 2. an individual socially withdrawn or removed from society

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. 1 a place apart or alone, cut off from society. b place (a patient thought to be contagious or infectious) in quarantine. 2 a identify and separate for attention (isolated the problem). b Chem. separate (a substance) from a mixture. 3 insulate (electrical apparatus). Derivatives: isolable adj. isolatable adj. isolator n. Etymology: orig. in past part., f. F isolé f. It. isolato f. LL insulatus f. L insula island

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Isolate I"so*late (?; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Isolated; p. pr. & vb. n. Isolating.] [It. isolato, p. p. of isolare to isolate, fr. isola island, L. insula. See 2d Isle, and cf. Insulate.] 1. To place in a detached situation; to place by itself or alone; to insulate; to separate from others. Short isolated sentences were the mode in which ancient wisdom delighted to convey its precepts. --Bp. Warburton. 2. (Elec.) To insulate. See Insulate. 3. (Chem.) To separate from all foreign substances; to make pure; to obtain in a free state.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(isolates, isolating, isolated) 1. To isolate a person or organization means to cause them to lose their friends or supporters. This policy could isolate the country from the other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council... Political influence is being used to shape public opinion and isolate critics. VERB: V n from n, V n • isolated They are finding themselves increasingly isolated within the teaching profession. ADJ: usu v-link ADJ • isolation Diplomatic isolation could lead to economic disaster. N-UNCOUNT: usu with supp 2. If you isolate yourself, or if something isolates you, you become physically or socially separated from other people. When he was thinking out a problem Tweed's habit was never to isolate himself in his room... His radicalism and refusal to compromise isolated him... Police officers had a siege mentality that isolated them from the people they served... But of course no one lives totally alone, isolated from the society around them. = cut off VERB: V pron-refl, V n, V n from n, V-ed 3. If you isolate something such as an idea or a problem, you separate it from others that it is connected with, so that you can concentrate on it or consider it on its own. Our anxieties can also be controlled by isolating thoughts, feelings and memories... Gandhi said that those who isolate religion from politics don't understand the nature of either. VERB: V n, V n from n 4. To isolate a substance means to obtain it by separating it from other substances using scientific processes. (TECHNICAL) We can use genetic engineering techniques to isolate the gene that is responsible... Researchers have isolated a new protein from the seeds of poppies. VERB: V n, V n from n 5. To isolate a sick person or animal means to keep them apart from other people or animals, so that their illness does not spread. You don't have to isolate them from the community. VERB: V n from n, also V n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Separate, dissociate, detach, insulate, segregate, place by itself, set apart.

Moby Thesaurus

abrupt, abscind, abstract, alienate, amputate, annihilate, apart, avoid, ban, banish, bar, block off, bob, bolt, cast off, cast out, clip, cloister, close off, cordon, cordon off, crop, cull, cull out, cut, cut adrift, cut away, cut off, cut out, debar, delete, depart, deport, detach, detached, disarticulate, disconnect, disengage, disjoin, disjoint, dissociate, disunite, divide, divorce, dock, eject, eliminate, enisle, enucleate, eradicate, estrange, except, excise, exclude, exile, expel, extinguish, extirpate, ghettoize, gin, ground, ignore, insulate, island, island-hop, isolated, keep apart, keep aside, knock off, lay aside, leave, lop, maroon, mutilate, nip, ostracize, pare, part, peel, pick out, prune, pull away, pull back, pull out, put aside, quarantine, reject, remove, removed, riddle, root out, rope off, rule out, screen, seal off, seclude, segregate, send to Coventry, separate, sequester, set apart, set aside, sever, shave, shear, shun, shut off, shut out, sieve, sift, snub, sort out, split, spurn, stamp out, stand aloof, stand apart, stand aside, step aside, strike off, strip, strip off, subtract, sunder, take off, take out, thrash, thresh, throw off, throw out, transport, truncate, unaccompanied, uncouple, unyoke, winnow, wipe out, withdraw