isolate
Other forms: isolated; isolating; isolates
When you remove or set apart one thing from others, you isolate it. You could isolate yourself from people by living in a remote hut or, if you're a biologist, you could isolate a chromosome.
The verb isolate comes from the adjective isolated, which comes from the Latin insulatas, meaning “made into an island.” You may have heard the John Donne quote, “No man is an island.” Donne was claiming that no matter how much you might try to isolate yourself from the rest of humanity, in the end people are all connected to one another. Humanity’s need for connectedness may, in fact, be illustrated by the fact that jailers frequently isolate criminals as punishment.
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place or set apart“They isolated the political prisoners from the other inmates”
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synonyms:
insulate
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types:
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segregate
separate or isolate (one thing) from another and place in a group apart from others
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ghettoise, ghettoize
put in a ghetto
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cloister
seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister
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seclude, sequester, sequestrate, withdraw
keep away from others
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quarantine
place into enforced isolation, as for medical reasons
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maroon
leave stranded on a desert island without resources
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type of:
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discriminate, separate, single out
treat differently on the basis of sex or race
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set apart from others
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synonyms:
keep apart, sequester, sequestrate, set apart
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obtain in pure form“The chemist managed to isolate the compound”
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types:
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preisolate
isolate beforehand
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preisolate
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separate (experiences) from the emotions relating to them
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