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detach

[dih-tach]

Example Sentences Origin

verb (used with object)

to unfasten and separate; disengage; disunite.

Military. to send away (a regiment, ship, etc.) on a special mission.

Origin:
1470–80; < Middle French détacher, Old French destachier; see dis-¹, attach

Related forms

de·tach·a·ble, adjective

de·tach·a·bil·i·ty, noun

de·tach·a·bly, adverb

de·tach·er, noun

non·de·tach·a·bil·i·ty, noun

EXPAND

non·de·tach·a·ble, adjective

pre·de·tach, verb (used with object)

self-de·tach·ing, adjective

un·de·tach·a·ble, adjective

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Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Detach is one of our favorite verbs.

So is subtilize. Does it mean:

to swindle, cheat, hoodwink, or hoax.

to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.

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Example Sentences

Faces, breasts, shoulders and arms seem to detach themselves from bodies and hurl themselves at us from every conceivable angle.

The response from supermarket-critics is to try to detach commercial success from popular legitimacy.

They can also detach their tails if caught and will grow another without permanent damage.

EXPAND

Faces, breasts, shoulders and arms seem to detach themselves from bodies and hurl themselves at us from every conceivable angle.

The response from supermarket-critics is to try to detach commercial success from popular legitimacy.

They can also detach their tails if caught and will grow another without permanent damage.

Cells that detach from their environment undergo a form of programmed cell death called anoikis.

If the weed is twined around desirable plants, detach it before treating.

These plugs should detach safely and cleanly from the wall when you trip over them, not from the device.

It does, but unfortunately, his arm has developed a mind and can attach or detach itself from the boy whenever it feels like.

If he can detach academic excellence from the national obsession with poshness, he will be remembered as a revolutionary.

See how great whites detach their jaws and devour thirty pounds of flesh at a time.

Would they detach the separable pair and place each bead individually on the machine to see which turned it.

When figs are ripe, they detach easily when lifted and bent back toward the branch.

McWhorter needs to detach himself from the time machine and get back to the future.

Detach stems, halve lengthwise if they are thick, and place in bowl of lemon water.

The response from supermarket-critics is to try to detach commercial success from popular.

With many movies of this type you have to detach yourself from reality.

His new hands, which can detach themselves from his body, exert a cartoonish will of their own.

These blogs might be pretty boring if it were otherwise, but it's helpful to understand and detach from your conditioning.

For example, humidity changes may cause parts of a pasta bas-relief to detach from their backing.

The rebels fought with desperation, hoping to detach our divisions and crush them in detail.

He felt the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee detach from the bone.

Alex poses as a humanitarian doctor to detach a woman from a feckless hunk.

It does not detach easily from cells to infect new ones, and it is usually killed by oseltamivir.

To remove those, you have to detach the fixture from the masonry by unscrewing all the fasteners holding it.

Detach the legs and wings and separate the drumsticks from the thighs.

Because the connection is physical, not chemical, the charged particles can attach and detach almost instantly.

That's a delicate attachment, and it doesn't take a lot of force to detach that.

Attachment to extended family makes it harder for the couple to detach.

As a result, the bronchioles detach from the alveoli, and holes appear.

For the second procedure, the surgeon may make a cut in the abdomen to detach and move the colon to a new position.

Meditation gives you the mental discipline to think clearly and detach from things.

She had still to suffer the agony of having the doctor manually remove the placenta, which had failed to detach.

Wright over many years complicates his efforts to detach himself.

Detach there before you put the duster through, then run your duster up from the back of the dryer and in from the outside.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

detach (dɪˈtætʃ)

—vb
1.	to disengage and separate or remove, as by pulling; unfasten; disconnect
2.	military to separate (a small unit) from a larger, esp for a special assignment

[C17: from Old French destachier, from des-dis-¹ + attachier to attach]

de'tachable

—*adj*

detacha'bility

—n

de'tacher

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

detach

1680s, from Fr. détacher, from O.Fr. destachier, from des- "apart" + attachier "attach" (see attach).

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

detach de·tach (dĭ-tāch')
v. de·tached, de·tach·ing, de·tach·es

To separate or unfasten; disconnect.
To remove from association or union with something.

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