separator

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. One that separates, as a device for separating cream from milk.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One who separates.
2. n. Any implement, machine, or contrivance used for separating one thing from another: as, cream-separators; grain- separators; magnetic separators (for separating valuable ores from the rock or sand by means of powerful magnets); etc. Specifically
3. n. A device for separating water from steam: usually a vessel, placed in the steam-line, having deflectors so arranged as to throw the water against metallic surfaces to which it will cling.
4. n. An insulating grid or plate of glass, vulcanite or other nonconducting material placed between the plates of a storage cell.
5. n. A piece of metal placed between two adjacent beams to hold them at a fixed distance apart.
6. n. A device on a ring-spinning machine designed to prevent interference between the yarns of adjacent spindles. Also called antiballooner.
7. n. An instrument for separating the membranes from the brain in a postmortem examination.
8. n. An instrument for widening the jaw and effecting separation of the crowded teeth.
9. n. An appliance for obtaining the urine secreted by one kidney unmixed with that from the other kidney.
10. n. A device used in a type-setting machine to permit only one character to pass through at a time.
11. n. In electricity, a device by means of which a single line may be used simultaneously for telephony and telegraphic signaling or for two distinct sets of telegraphic signals. It depends upon the operation, in branch circuits, of two sets of receiving instruments, such as a relay in one branch and a telephone in the other, without interference. The signaling currents differ in frequency, and the inductance and capacity of the two branch circuits are so adjusted that the instrument in each is affected only by the current intended for it. Elect. World and Engin., April 2, 1904, p. 663.
12. n. A separator, invented by Venstrom, in which the powdered ore is carried by a traveling belt toward a partly magnetized cylinder, which attracts the magnetic ore, carrying it into a chute leading to the ore-bin, while the non-magnetic ore is carried by the belt to the waste chute.

Wiktionary

1. n. An object located between two or more things and hence separates them.
2. n. A device for removing one substance from another, such as cream from milk.
3. n. An agent performing the action of separating.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Steam Boilers) A device for depriving steam of particles of water mixed with it.
2. n. (Mining) An apparatus for sorting pulverized ores into grades, or separating them from gangue.
3. n. (Weaving) An instrument used for spreading apart the threads of the warp in the loom, etc.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an apparatus that uses centrifugal force to separate particles from a suspension