separations

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
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
   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
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

See all 8 meanings of separation