separation

Noun

separation (countable and uncountable, plural separations)

1. The act of disuniting two or more things, or the condition of being separated.

   Synonyms:

   detachment, disjunction, division, rupture, severance

   Antonyms:

   annexation, combination, unification, composite, conjunction, fusion, junction, juncture, melding, merger

2. The act or condition of two or more people being separated from one another.
   • We were a band of brothers, and never dearer to each other than now. The thought which gave us the most pain, was the probable separation which would now take place, in case we were sold off to the far south, as we were likely to be.1855, Frederick Douglass, chapter 19, in My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York; Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […], →OCLC
   • […] my longing for her was undiminished despite our months of near-complete separation.2007, Mohsin Hamid, chapter 10, in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Orlando: Harcourt, page 141
3. The act or condition of a married couple living in separate homes while remaining legally married.
   • ‘If he dares to refuse me a separation, I’ll have one in law—I can—and I hope this will be a warning to all girls who have seen this disgraceful exhibition.’1839, Charles Dickens, chapter 44, in Nicholas Nickleby
   • […] she [knows] her great-aunt’s concern over her son Warren, his two divorces, and now Alice’s bitter separation from her husband, Ben.1993, Carol Shields, chapter 8, in The Stone Diaries, Toronto: Vintage, published 1994, page 302
   1. An agreement legalizing such an arrangement.
      • I should have gone back to her the day after the fair, if it hadn't been for you talking about the law, and rubbish about getting a separation;1874, Thomas Hardy, chapter 52, in Far from the Madding Crowd. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC
      • “You are deserting me?”
        “Don’t be the neglected, dramatic wife, Scarlett. The rôle isn’t becoming. I take it, then, you do not want a divorce or even a separation? Well, then, I’ll come back often enough to keep gossip down.”1936 June 30, Margaret Mitchell, chapter LXIII, in Gone with the Wind, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC
4. The place at which a division occurs.
   • I was now on the separation of two vast water-sheds; behind me all the streams were bound for the Garonne and the Western Ocean; before me was the basin of the Rhone.1879, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Heart of the Country”, in Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes

   Synonyms:

   border, boundary, demarcation

5. An interval, gap or space that separates things or people.
   • […] gentle friend, for love and courtesy
     Lie further off; in human modesty,
     Such separation as may well be said
     Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
     So far be distant;c. 1595, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, act II, scene 2

   Synonyms:

   break, interstice, gap, interlapse, interspace, interstitium, opening, space

6. An object that separates two spaces.
   • [The orchard] was full of trees, it bloomed with flowers: a very high wall shut it out from the court, on one side; on the other, a beech avenue screened it from the lawn. At the bottom was a sunk fence; its sole separation from lonely fields:1847, Charlotte Brontë, chapter 23, in Jane Eyre

   Synonyms:

   barrier, separator

7. Departure from active duty, while not necessarily leaving the service entirely.