removed

1. 1
   verb

   Past tense and past participle of remove.

   Voters removed the mayor from office after the scandal.

   The damaged panels were removed before the inspection.

   Note

   One spelling does the work of both forms. As a participle it takes have in the perfect (has removed the file) and be in the passive (was removed from office). It can carry any meaning of remove, from a deleted file to a dismissed batsman, so the surrounding sentence decides which. When it describes a state of distance rather than an action, it has become the adjective of separation.

2. 2
   adjective

   Separated from something else in time, space, or degree.

   Her calm manner made her seem removed from the chaos around her.

   The remote village felt removed from modern life in almost every way.

   Similardistant, detached, remote, separate, isolated

   Oppositeconnected, involved, close

   Note

   Often comes after a measure of time or distance rather than before a noun: one week removed, a generation removed. In that position the phrase works like an adverb of separation. It is also gradable (more removed, most removed), so something can sit further from the action by degrees. When the point of separation is named, it takes from: removed from daily life.

3. 3
   adjective

   Belonging to a different generation than another relative, whether older or younger.

   The genealogist explained that her great-aunt's daughter was her cousin once removed.

   At the reunion, she discovered a cousin three times removed living nearby.

   Note

   Genealogy counts generations with it: once removed means one generation apart, twice removed two. It always follows the cousin term, as in second cousin once removed, where the ordinal counts how distant the shared ancestor is and removed counts the generational gap. Your parent's first cousin is therefore your first cousin once removed. The figure grew from the sense of distance, here measured in generations.

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