separate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To set or keep apart; disunite.
2. v. To space apart; scatter: small farms that were separated one from another by miles of open land.
3. v. To sort: separate mail by postal zones.
4. v. To differentiate or discriminate between; distinguish: a researcher who separated the various ethnic components of the population sample.
5. v. To remove from a mixture or combination; isolate.
6. v. To part (a couple), often by decree: She was separated from her husband last year.
7. v. To terminate a contractual relationship, as military service, with; discharge.
8. v. To come apart.
9. v. To withdraw: The state threatened to separate from the Union.
10. v. To part company; disperse.
11. v. To stop living together as spouses.
12. v. To become divided into components or parts: Oil and water tend to separate.
13. adj. Set or kept apart; disunited: Libraries often have a separate section for reference books.
14. adj. Existing as an independent entity.
15. adj. Having undergone schism or estrangement from a parent body: Separate churches.
16. adj. Dissimilar from all others; distinct: "a policeman's way of being separate from you even when he was being nice” ( John le Carré).
17. adj. Not shared; individual: two people who held separate views on the issue.
18. adj. Archaic Withdrawn from others; solitary.
19. n. A garment, such as a skirt, jacket, or pair of slacks, that may be purchased separately and worn in various combinations with other garments.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To sever the connection or association of; disunite or disconnect in any way; sever.
2. To divide, place, or keep apart; cut off, as by an intervening space or body; occupy the space between: as, the Atlantic separates Europe from America.
3. Synonyms To disjoin, disconnect, detach, disengage, sunder, cleave, distinguish, isolate.
4. To dissociate.
5. To part; be or become disunited or disconnected; withdraw from one another.
6. To cleave; open; come apart.
7. Divided from the rest; disjoined; disconnected: used of things that have been united or associated.
8. Specifically, disunited from the body; incorporeal: as, the separate state of souls.
9. By its or one's self; apart from others; retired; secluded.
10. Distinct; unconnected.
11. Individual; particular.
12. An estate held by another in trust for a married woman.
13. Synonyms Distinct, etc. (see different), disunited, dissociated, detached. See the verb.
14. n. One who is or prefers to be separate; a separatist; a dissenter.
15. n. A member of an American Calvinistic Methodist sect of the eighteenth century, so called because of their organization into separate societies. They maintained that Christian believers are guided by the direct teachings of the Holy Spirit, and that such teaching is in the nature of inspiration, and superior though not contrary to reason.
16. n. An article issued separately; a separate slip, article, or document; specifically, in bibliography, a copy of a printed article, essay, monograph, etc., published separately from the volume of which it forms a part, often retitled and repaged.

Wiktionary

1. adj. Apart from (the rest); not connected to or attached to (anything else).
2. adj. followed by “from” Not together (with); not united (to).
3. v. transitive To divide (a thing) into separate parts.
4. v. transitive To cause (things or people) to be separate.
5. v. intransitive To divide itself into separate pieces or substances.
6. n. usually in the plural Anything that is sold by itself, especially an article of clothing.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To disunite; to divide; to disconnect; to sever; to part in any manner.
2. v. To come between; to keep apart by occupying the space between; to lie between.
3. v. To set apart; to select from among others, as for a special use or service.
4. v. To part; to become disunited; to be disconnected; to withdraw from one another.
5. adj. Divided from another or others; disjoined; disconnected; separated; -- said of things once connected.
6. adj. Unconnected; not united or associated; distinct; -- said of things that have not been connected.
7. adj. Disunited from the body; disembodied.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. separated according to race, sex, class, or religion
2. adj. have the connection undone; having become separate
3. v. mark as different
4. v. discontinue an association or relation; go different ways
5. n. a separately printed article that originally appeared in a larger publication
6. v. become separated into pieces or fragments
7. v. force, take, or pull apart
8. v. make a division or separation
9. v. divide into components or constituents
10. v. come apart
11. adj. independent; not united or joint
12. v. go one's own way; move apart
13. n. a garment that can be purchased separately and worn in combinations with other garments
14. adj. standing apart; not attached to or supported by anything
15. v. act as a barrier between; stand between
16. v. separate into parts or portions
17. v. treat differently on the basis of sex or race
18. v. arrange or order by classes or categories
19. v. divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork