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Remove vs Separate - What's the difference?

remove | separate |

Separate is a synonym of remove.



In transitive terms the difference between remove and separate

is that remove is to discard, set aside, especially something abstract (a thought, feeling, etc.) while separate is to cause (things or people) to be separate.

In intransitive terms the difference between remove and separate

is that remove is to change one's residence; to move while separate is to divide itself into separate pieces or substances.

As an adjective separate is

apart from (the rest); not connected to or attached to (anything else).

remove

English

Verb

(remov)
  • (label) To move something from one place to another, especially to take away.
  • :
  • *(Bible), (w) xix.14:
  • *:Thou shalt not remove thy neighbour's landmark.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
  • , chapter=2 citation , passage=Now that she had rested and had fed from the luncheon tray Mrs. Broome had just removed , she had reverted to her normal gaiety.  She looked cool in a grey tailored cotton dress with a terracotta scarf and shoes and her hair a black silk helmet.}}
  • # To replace a dish within a course.
  • #*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
  • , passage=But Richmond
  • (label) To murder.
  • To dismiss a batsman.
  • (label) To discard, set aside, especially something abstract (a thought, feeling, etc.).
  • *1590 , (Edmund Spenser), (The Faerie Queene) , III.viii:
  • *:Die had she rather in tormenting griefe, / Then any should of falsenesse her reproue, / Or loosenesse, that she lightly did remoue .
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author= Karen McVeigh
  • , volume=189, issue=2, page=10, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= US rules human genes can't be patented , passage=The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.}}
  • To depart, leave.
  • *:
  • *:THenne the kynge dyd doo calle syre Gawayne / syre Borce / syr Lyonel and syre Bedewere / and commaunded them to goo strayte to syre Lucius / and saye ye to hym that hastely he remeue oute of my land / And yf he wil not / bydde hym make hym redy to bataylle and not distresse the poure peple
  • (label) To change one's residence; to move.
  • *(William Shakespeare)
  • *:Till Birnam wood remove to Dunsinane.
  • *1719 , (Daniel Defoe), (Robinson Crusoe)
  • *:Now my life began to be so easy that I began to say to myself that could I but have been safe from more savages, I cared not if I was never to remove from the place where I lived.
  • *1834 , (David Crockett), A Narrative of the Life of , Nebraska 1987, p.20:
  • *:Shortly after this, my father removed , and settled in the same county, about ten miles above Greenville.
  • To dismiss or discharge from office.
  • :
  • Synonyms

    * unstay

    Antonyms

    * (move something from one place to another) settle, place, add

    Derived terms

    * removable * removal * remover

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of removing something.
  • * (rfdate) (Milton)
  • This place should be at once both school and university, not needing a remove to any other house of scholarship.
  • * (rfdate) (Goldsmith)
  • And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.
  • (archaic) Removing a dish at a meal in order to replace it with the next course, a dish thus replaced, or the replacement.
  • (British) (at some public schools ) A division of the school, especially the form prior to last
  • A step or gradation (as in the phrase "at one remove")
  • * (rfdate) (Addison)
  • A freeholder is but one remove from a legislator.
  • Distance in time or space; interval.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2007, author=James D. McCallister, title=King's Highway, page=162, pageurl=http://books.google.com/books?id=DnRD6B3PPAoC&pg=PA162
  • , passage=In his unfortunate absence at this far remove of 2007, Zevon's musicianship and irascible wit are as missed as ever.}}
  • (dated) The transfer of one's home or business to another place; a move.
  • * (rfdate)
  • It is an English proverb that three removes are as bad as a fire.
  • The act of resetting a horse's shoe.
  • (Jonathan Swift)

    References

    * OED 2nd edition 1989 1000 English basic words ----

    separate

    English

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Apart from (the rest); not connected to or attached to (anything else).
  • This chair can be disassembled into five separate pieces.
  • Not together (with); not united (to).
  • I try to keep my personal life separate from work.

    Verb

    (separat)
  • To divide (a thing) into separate parts.
  • To disunite something from one thing; To disconnect.
  • * Dryden
  • From the fine gold I separate the alloy.
  • * Bible, Romans viii. 35
  • Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
  • To cause (things or people) to be separate.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-07, author=David Simpson
  • , volume=188, issue=26, page=36, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Fantasy of navigation , passage=It is tempting to speculate about the incentives or compulsions that might explain why anyone would take to the skies in [the] basket [of a balloon]: […];  […]; or perhaps to muse on the irrelevance of the borders that separate nation states and keep people from understanding their shared environment.}}
  • To divide itself into separate pieces or substances.
  • (obsolete) To set apart; to select from among others, as for a special use or service.
  • * Bible, Acts xiii. 2
  • Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.

    Derived terms

    * separable * separately * separation * separational * separationism * separationist

    Antonyms

    * annex * combine

    See also

    * disunite * disconnect * divide * split * reduce * subtract

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (usually, in the plural) Anything that is sold by itself, especially an article of clothing.
  • Usage notes

    * The spelling is (separate). *(term) is a common misspelling.