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Insulate vs Alienate - What's the difference?

insulate | alienate |

As verbs the difference between insulate and alienate

is that insulate is to separate, detach, or isolate while alienate is to convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.

As an adjective alienate is

estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from .

As a noun alienate is

(obsolete) a stranger; an alien.

insulate

English

Verb

  • To separate, detach, or isolate.
  • To separate a body or material from others, e.g. by non-conductors to prevent the transfer of electricity, heat, etc.
  • Ceramic can be used to insulate power lines.

    Synonyms

    * isolate

    alienate

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from .
  • O alienate from God''. (John Milton). ''Paradise Lost line 4643.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A stranger; an alien.
  • Verb

    (alienat)
  • To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
  • To estrange; to withdraw affections or attention from; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before subsisted; to wean.
  • * (rfdate) (Thomas Babington Macaulay):
  • The errors which alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart.
  • * (rfdate) (Isaac Taylor):
  • The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present.

    Usage notes

    Alienate'' is largely synonymous with estrange. However, ''alienate'' is used primarily to refer to driving off (“he ''alienated'' her with his atrocious behavior”) or to offend a group (“the imprudent remarks ''alienated'' the urban demographic”), while ''estrange is used rather to mean “cut off relations”, particularly in a family setting.

    Synonyms

    * (estrange) estrange, antagonize, isolate

    References

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