isolate

present singular third person isolates · participle present isolating · participle past isolated · past isolated

1. transitiveTo set apart or cut off from others.

   By isolating these two main types of relation, hyponymy and incompatibility, we can characterize the relations between a large web of items.

   1977, Ruth Kempson, Semantic Theory, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 86

   1 more example

   Iran could not be happier. The more Israel sinks into the West Bank, the more it is delegitimized and isolated, the more the world focuses on Israel’s colonialism rather than Iran’s nuclear enrichment, the more people call for a single democratic state in all of historic Palestine.

   2014 May 4, Thomas L. Friedman, “Sheldon: Iran’s Best Friend”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 31 Mar 2020

   Synonyms: island, enisle, quarantine

2. transitiveTo place in quarantine or isolation.

   Synonyms: quarantine

3. transitivechemistryTo separate a substance in pure form from a mixture.

   To isolate the petroline the condensed oil is distilled again until fifty per cent. of oil has been obtained, and what is left in the still is petroline.

   1871, English Patents of Inventions, Specifications: 1871, 901 - 946, page 6

4. transitiveTo insulate, or make free of external influence.

   One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination.

   2014 June 14, “It's a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891, archived from the original on 09 Jan 2025

5. transitivebiologyTo separate a pure strain of bacteria etc. from a mixed culture.
6. transitiveTo insulate an electrical component from a source of electricity.
7. intransitiveTo self-isolate.

   Synonyms: self-quarantine

plural isolates

1. Something that has been isolated.

   We used electropherotypes in order to differentiate the original parental strains or isolates from the finally tumor cell-adapted isolates.

   2016 February 2, “Experimental Adaptation of Rotaviruses to Tumor Cell Lines”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI

1. literarynot comparableisolated.

   Narrow Yung-ch'ung streets quiet, / temple gardens all isolate mystery, / no one visits.

   1999, Po Chü-i, “At Flowering-Brightness Monastery In Yung-ch'ung District”, in David Hinton, transl., The Selected Poems of Po Chü-i, New York, NY: New Directions, →ISBN, page 12

   2 more examples

   He said in his heart, the day his beard was shaven he was beaten, lost. He identified it with his isolate manhood.

   1923, D.H. Lawrence, Kangaroo, chapter XII

   Its snaky acid kiss. It petrifies the will. These are the isolate, slow faults That kill, that kill, that kill.

   1961, Sylvia Plath, “Elm [published originally as "The Elm Speaks"]”, in Ariel, HarperPerennial, →ISBN, page 16