segregate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to separate or set apart from others or from the main body or group; isolate.
to segregate exceptional children; to segregate hardened criminals.
- Antonyms:
- integrate
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to require, by law or custom, the separation of (an ethnic, racial, religious, or other minority group) from the dominant majority.
verb (used without object)
-
to separate, withdraw, or go apart; separate from the main body and collect in one place; become segregated.
-
to practice, require, or enforce segregation, especially racial segregation.
-
Genetics. (of allelic genes) to separate during meiosis.
noun
verb
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to set or be set apart from others or from the main group
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(tr) to impose segregation on (a racial or minority group)
-
genetics metallurgy to undergo or cause to undergo segregation
Other Word Forms
- nonsegregable adjective
- nonsegregative adjective
- resegregate verb
- segregable adjective
- segregative adjective
- segregator noun
- unsegregable adjective
- unsegregating adjective
- unsegregative adjective
Etymology
Origin of segregate
1400–50 in sense “segregated”; 1535–45 as transitive v.; late Middle English segregat < Latin sēgregātus (past participle of sēgregāre to part from the flock), equivalent to sē- se- + greg- (stem of grex flock) + -ātus -ate 1; gregarious
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.
Since the 2023 violence, the communities have been largely segregated, confined to separate regions, with thousands displaced from their homes.
From BBC
His aim wasn’t to segregate black history from the national narrative but to force its inclusion.
Fairbanks, who was Black and Seminole, was born in the Deep South at a time when ice rinks were segregated.
From Los Angeles Times
From the presence of the Indigenous Choctaw people to the segregated sides of the same street, Coogler paints a picture of 1930s America with a documentarian’s brush.
From Los Angeles Times
Colvin, at age 15, was arrested nine months before Rosa Parks gained international fame for also refusing to give up her seat on a segregated bus.
From Los Angeles Times
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.
