isolate
[verb ahy-suh-leyt; noun, adjective ahy-suh-lit, -leyt]
- to set or place apart; detach or separate so as to be alone.
- Medicine/Medical. to keep (an infected person) from contact with noninfected persons; quarantine.
- Chemistry, Bacteriology. to obtain (a substance or microorganism) in an uncombined or pure state.
- Electricity. to insulate.
- Television. to single out (a person, action, etc.) for a camera closeup.
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- a person, thing, or group that is set apart or isolated, as for purposes of study.
- Psychology. a person, often shy or lacking in social skills, who avoids the company of others and has no friends within a group.
- Biology. an inbreeding population that is isolated from similar populations by physiological, behavioral, or geographic barriers.
- Also called language isolate. Linguistics. a language with no demonstrable genetic relationship, as Basque.
- something that has been isolated, as a by-product in a manufacturing process: an isolate of soy flour.
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- isolated; alone.
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Origin of isolate
First recorded in 1800–10; back formation from isolated
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Related Words
disengageconfinedisconnectdivideseparateinsulateremovesegregatesequesterdetachsecludedivorceabstractpartsunderquarantineseverislandExamples from the Web for isolate
Contemporary Examples
JUDNICK: My reaction is so visceral that I immediately, like you, isolate myself so I can breathe.
They are, after all, carefully selected “types,” and to isolate them runs the risk of seeing the book as an allegory.
We can do that because of two things: strong health care…and strong public health that can track contacts and isolate them.
Backed by NATO solidarity and economic sanctions with teeth, it just might isolate Putin enough that he backs off.
He made a decision to isolate himself, so I would ask did he think he was going to die when he realized he was exposed?
Historical Examples
But we do not isolate the comic personage as we do the solitary, tragic figure.
The American MindBliss Perry
Like Hermione, he wished to isolate Vere, to preserve her as she was in character.
A Spirit in PrisonRobert Hichens
The winter seemed to isolate them from the world still more.
His MasterpieceEmile Zola
You see, I've had to be careful—not to isolate you from life—life as it is.
The World BeyondRaymond King Cummings
It seeks to isolate itself from matter and sense, and to assert its independence in thought.
TheaetetusPlato
isolate
- to place apart; cause to be alone
- med to quarantine (a person or animal) having or suspected of having a contagious disease
- to obtain (a compound) in an uncombined form
- to obtain pure cultures of (bacteria, esp those causing a particular disease)
- electronics to prevent interaction between (circuits, components, etc); insulate
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- an isolated person or group
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Word Origin
C19: back formation from isolated, via Italian from Latin insulātus, literally: made into an island; see insulate
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for isolate
v.
by 1786, a new formation from isolated (q.v.).
The translation of this work is well performed, excepting that fault from which few translations are wholly exempt, and which is daily tending to corrupt our language, the adoption of French expressions. We have here evasion for escape, twice or more times repeated; brigands very frequently; we have the unnecessary and foolish word isolate; and, if we mistake not, paralize, which at least has crept in through a similar channel. Translators cannot be too careful on this point, as it is a temptation to which they are constantly exposed. ["The British Critic," April 1799]
As a noun from 1890, from earlier adjectival use (1819).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
isolate
(ī′sə-lāt′)- To set apart or cut off from others.
- To place in quarantine.
- To separate a pure strain from a mixed bacterial or fungal culture.
- To separate or remove a chemical substance out of a combined mixture.
- To separate experiences or memories from the emotions relating to them.
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- A bacterial or fungal strain that has been isolated.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.