isolate

Formsisolates, isolating, isolated

Pluralisolates

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To set someone or something apart from others, cutting off contact or connection.

   The new policy could isolate small businesses from major suppliers.

   The sudden move had isolated her from old friends.

   Similarquarantine

   Oppositeintegrate, connect

   Note

   The verb arrived backward. English had isolated first, borrowed through French isolé and Italian isolato from Latin īnsulatus, and isolate was clipped from it. That same Latin word also gave insulate, its near twin. The object can be a person, a nation or an idea: Ruth Kempson's Semantic Theory (1977) isolates two types of relation in order to study them apart. The literary synonym enisle keeps an island picture in view.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To place a person or animal in quarantine, separating them to prevent the spread of infection.

   The hospital chose to isolate everyone exposed to the outbreak.

   Travelers returning from the region were isolated for two weeks.

   Similarquarantine

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To insulate something from outside forces, keeping it free of external influence.

   Engineers worked to isolate the experiment from any outside vibration.

   The committee's decision isolated the inquiry from political pressure.

   Similarinsulate, shield, protect, screen

   Oppositeexpose

   Note

   Here isolate overlaps most with insulate, which comes from the same Latin word as the "cut off" sense. The aim is protection: keeping something safe from outside forces, or keeping others safe from it. The Economist (2014) uses it of a city's effluent, shipped away in underground sewers, and credits the practice with saving more lives than almost any medical procedure.

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To withdraw from contact with others by remaining apart, typically to avoid transmitting or catching an illness.

   Anyone with symptoms was advised to isolate immediately.

   She isolated for a week until her test came back clear.

   Similarquarantine

   Note

   The short form of self-isolate takes no object, because the person isolating is the one kept apart. Compare the quarantine sense, where someone else does the isolating: the hospital isolated the patients. Here people simply isolate, or isolate at home. Self-quarantine is its close synonym.

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A thing that has been separated out from a larger group, mixture, or population.

   The clinic forwarded the isolate to a reference laboratory.

   Several isolates from the outbreak shared the same genetic markers.

   Similarstrain, culture

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To separate a substance in pure form from a mixture of other materials.

   Researchers managed to isolate the compound responsible for the smell.

   She isolated caffeine from a batch of tea leaves.

   Similarextract, separate, purify

   Note

   Chemistry's working sense, where what matters is the purity of what remains. In English Patents of Inventions, Specifications (1871), oil is distilled again and again until petroline is left behind in the still. Isolating is often a matter of removing everything else. The usual pattern is isolate X from Y.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To separate a pure strain of bacteria or similar microbes from a mixed culture.

   Microbiologists aimed to isolate the pathogen from the contaminated water.

   They isolated several yeast strains from the fermentation tank.

   Similarextract, separate

   Note

   The microbiologist's version of the chemist's task, except that the prize is a living strain rather than a compound. Laboratories isolate an organism from a sample or a mixed culture, and the pure strain they obtain is called an isolate. In research papers, the noun usually means exactly this.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To insulate an electrical component from its power source, cutting off the supply of electricity to it.

   Technicians must isolate the transformer before carrying out repairs.

   He isolated the damaged section from the rest of the grid.

   Similardisconnect, de-energize

   Oppositeconnect, reconnect, energize

9. 9
   adjectiveliterary

   Standing apart from others; solitary and removed from company or surroundings.

   The lighthouse keeper led an isolate life on the rocky shore.

   An isolate figure waited at the far end of the platform.

   Similarsolitary, lone, lonely, secluded, reclusive

   Note

   This is a poet's adjective. Writers reach for it when isolated, the past participle, would suggest something done to the subject rather than a state it is in. D.H. Lawrence's Kangaroo (1923) speaks of "his isolate manhood," and Sylvia Plath uses it the same way in her poem "Elm." It is not compared. In everyday prose, isolated remains the normal choice.

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