Search the Dictionary

To unbuild; to pull or tear down; to separate virulently into its constituent parts; to break up the structure and organic existence of; to demolish. But ye shall destroy their altars, break their images, and cut down their groves. Ex. xxxiv. 13.

To part; to separate or disunite; to disengage; -- the opposite of attach; as, to detach the coats of a bulbous root from each other; to detach a man from a leader or from a party.

Separate; unconnected, or imperfectly connected; as, detached parcels. "Extensive and detached empire." Burke. Detached escapement. See Escapement.

To fix the boundaries of; to mark off and separate. [God] hath determined the times before appointed. Acts xvii. 26.

Hence: Any fragments separated from the body to which they belonged; any product of disintegration. The mass of detritus of which modern languages are composed. Farrar.

That separates or distinguishes; -- applied to points or marks used to distinguish letters of similar form, or different sounds of the same letter, as, a, â, ä, o, ô, etc. "Diacritical points." Sir W. Jones. A glance at this typography will reveal great difficulties, which diacritical marks necessarily throw in the way…

Having separate petals; polypetalous.

To separate, prepare, or obtain, by dialysis or osmose; to pass through an animal membrane; to subject to dialysis. [Written also dialyse.]

ed to the nucleus of a cell, when, during cell division, the loops of the nuclear network separate into two groups, preparatory to the formation of two daughter nuclei. See Karyokinesis.

To separate into two parts; to branch dichotomously; to become dichotomous.

Having the stamens and pistils in separate flowers. Gray.

piece or composed of several parts, for forming screw threads on bolts, etc.; one of the separate parts which make up such a tool. Cutting die (Mech.), a thin, deep steel frame, sharpened to a cutting edge, for cutting out articles from leather, cloth, paper, etc. -- The die is cast, the hazard must be run; the step…

are not differenced from the meanest subject. Milton. So completely differenced by their separate and individual characters that we at once acknowledge them as distinct persons. Sir W. Scott.

Distinct; separate; not the same; other. "Five different churches." Addison.

To acquire a distinct and separate character. Huxley.

To break or separate into parts; to deflect, or decompose by deflection, a

To separate (the food) in its passage through the alimentary canal into the nutritive and nonnutritive elements; to prepare, by the action of the digestive juices, for conversion into blood; to convert into chyme.

A subclass of gastropod mollusks in which the sexes are separate. It includes most of the large marine species, like the conchs, cones, and cowries.

Divided; separated. [Obs.] Stow.

To destroy the aggregation of; to separate into component parts, as an aggregate mass.