Separate Separated Impossible ˈsepəreɪt Make Points Things People

• stir the sauce constantly so that it does not separate.
• separate the eggs (= separate the yolk from the white).
• it is impossible to separate belief from emotion.
• make a list of points and separate them into ‘desirable’ and ‘essential’.

separate

1. to divide into different parts or groups; to divide things into different parts or groups
• Stir the sauce constantly so that it does not separate.
• Separate the eggs (= separate the yolk from the white).
• It is impossible to separate belief from emotion.
• Make a list of points and separate them into ‘desirable’ and ‘essential’.
2. to move apart; to make people or things move apart
• South America and Africa separated 200 million years ago.
• South America separated from Africa 200 million years ago.
• We separated into several different search parties.
• 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. 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. to stop living together as a couple with your husband, wife or partner
• They separated last year.
• He separated from his wife after 20 years of marriage.
5. to make somebody/something different in some way from somebody/something else
• synonym divide
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/divide_1
• Politics is the only thing that separates us (= that we disagree about).
• Her lack of religious faith separated her from the rest of her family.
• The judges found it impossible to separate the two contestants (= they gave them equal scores).
• Only four points separate the top three teams.
6. to show or prove who is brave, skilful, etc. and who is not
7. to distinguish people who are good at something, intelligent, etc. from those who are not
• See related entries: Farm animals
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/topic/farm_animals/separate_2
8. to distinguish useful or valuable people or things from ones that are not useful or have no value
• See related entries: Crops
  https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/topic/crops/separate_3
• We sifted through the application forms to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Extra Examples

• A magnet separates out scrap iron from the rubbish.
• He had recently separated from his wife.
• I separated the documents into two piles.
• It was impossible to separate the rival fans.
• Mechanically separated meat made from cattle and sheep has now been banned.
• One cannot easily separate moral, social and political issues.
• She is separated from her husband.
• Slave parents were forcibly separated from their children.
• The boys are separated from the girls.
• The disciplines of science and engineering are not always sharply separated.
• The two groups became widely separated.
• These two branches of the science have now become clearly separated.
• an island resort totally separated from the mainland
• A high wall separated our block from the playing field.
• A thousand kilometres separate the two cities.
• First, separate the eggs.
• Politics is the only thing that separates us.
• The judges found it impossible to separate the two contestants.
• Two men separated from the others and walked towards me.

Verb Forms

• present simple I / you / we / they separate
• he / she / it separates
• past simple separated
• past participle separated
• -ing form separating

Word Origin

• late Middle English: from Latin separat- ‘disjoined, divided’, from the verb separare, from se- ‘apart’ + parare ‘prepare’.