Definition of "isolate"

isolate

/ˈaɪ.sə.leɪt/

verb
third-person singular simple present isolates, present participle isolating, simple past and past participle isolated
1. (transitive) To set apart or cut off from others.
2. (transitive) To place in quarantine or isolation.
3. (transitive, chemistry) To separate a substance in pure form from a mixture.
4. (transitive) To insulate, or make free of external influence.
  Quotations
  One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.
  2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891
5. (transitive, microbiology) To separate a pure strain of bacteria etc. from a mixed culture.
6. (transitive) To insulate an electrical component from a source of electricity.
7. (intransitive) To self-isolate.
noun
plural isolates
1. Something that has been isolated.
adjective
not comparable
1. (literary) isolated.
  Quotations
  He said in his heart, the day his beard was shaven he was beaten, lost. He identified it with his isolate manhood.
  1923, D.H. Lawrence, Kangaroo, chapter XII
  Its snaky acid kiss.It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faultsThat kill, that kill, that kill.
  1961, Sylvia Plath, “Elm [published originally as "The Elm Speaks"]”, in Ariel, HarperPerennial, page 16
  Narrow Yung-ch'ung streets quiet, / temple gardens all isolate mystery, / no one visits.
  1999, Po Chü-i, “At Flowering-Brightness Monastery In Yung-ch'ung District”, in David Hinton, transl., The Selected Poems of Po Chü-i, New York, NY: New Directions, page 12

Definition of "isolate"

isolate

verb

Quotations

noun

adjective

Quotations