detach
Americanverb (used with object)
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to unfasten and separate; disengage; disunite.
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Military. to send away (a regiment, ship, etc.) on a special mission.
verb
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to disengage and separate or remove, as by pulling; unfasten; disconnect
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military to separate (a small unit) from a larger, esp for a special assignment
Other Word Forms
- detachability noun
- detachable adjective
- detachably adverb
- detacher noun
- nondetachability noun
- nondetachable adjective
- predetach verb (used with object)
- self-detaching adjective
- undetachable adjective
Etymology
Origin of detach
1470–80; < Middle French détacher, Old French destachier; dis- 1, attach
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"I was completely detached from reality. It was really scary and I was admitted to a general psychiatric ward and separated from my baby at the time."
From BBC
“Not everyone,” the girl observed in the same detached drawl, “seems to appreciate the accommodations at the bunkers.”
From Literature
Dr. Kiat explains that feathers grow over two to three weeks before detaching from the blood supply and becoming nonliving material.
From Science Daily
California is largely detached from the rest of the fuel distribution system.
From Los Angeles Times
The agency’s mindset remains: evidentiary maximalism detached from clinical reality, indifference to patient urgency, and hostility to the flexibility Congress intended.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
