separation
[sep-uh-rey-shuh n]
- an act or instance of separating or the state of being separated.
- a place, line, or point of parting.
- a gap, hole, rent, or the like.
- something that separates or divides.
- Law.
- cessation of conjugal cohabitation, as by mutual consent.
- judicial separation.
- Aerospace. the time or act of releasing a burned-out stage of a rocket or missile from the remainder.
- Photography. separation negative.
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Origin of separation
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for separation
Contemporary Examples
Enter Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which threatened to sue.
But the second thing is the way this city has changed in recent years, the intensification of the separation.
But does John accept Brenda the wife and Brenda the professional after two full years of separation?
Thanks again to the Founding Fathers for the separation of powers!
The hero first enters a period known as separation, where he leaves his past and enters a new life of adventure.
The Walking Dead’s Luke Skywalker: Rick Grimes Is the Perfect Modern-Day Mythical HeroRegina Lizik
October 28, 2014
Historical Examples
But the British government objected to the separation and their union with Greece.
The Grand Old ManRichard B. Cook
It was no separation—so long as like speech it was between them.
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
There was none of the illusion of separation; he was always there, like Katie.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
This I did; and we met, again, after a separation of five-and-twenty years.
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
In this manner are old shipmates often thrown together, after years of separation.
Ned MyersJames Fenimore Cooper
separation
- the act of separating or state of being separated
- the place or line where a separation is made
- a gap that separates
- family law the cessation of cohabitation between a man and wife, either by mutual agreement or under a decree of a courtCompare judicial separation, divorce
- the act of jettisoning a burnt-out stage of a multistage rocket
- the instant at which such a stage is jettisoned
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for separation
n.
c.1400, from Old French separacion (Modern French séparation), from Latin separationem (nominative separatio) noun of action from past participle stem of separare (see separate (v.)). Specific sense of "sundering of a married couple" is attested from c.1600. Sense in photography is from 1922. Separation of powers first recorded 1788, in "Federalist" (Hamilton), from French séparée de la puissance (Montesquieu, 1748). Separation anxiety first attested 1943.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper