apart
/əˈpɑːt
/adverb
1(Of two or more people or things) separated by a specified distance in time or space: two stone gateposts some thirty feet apart studies from as far apart as America and Iceland figurative the two sides remained far apart on the issue of cruise missiles...
- Lie on your back, legs straight, and extend your arms overhead, stretching your hands and feet as far apart as possible.
- She stayed in one place, her feet about as far apart as her shoulders, and really only her legs moved.
- The passing of our friend Schwartz is being noted in venues as far apart as The Independent and The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Synonyms
away from each other, distant from each other
1.1No longer living together or close emotionally: alcoholism had driven us apart...
- Asking for things you know your partner won't want to do is likely to make you feel further apart, not closer together.
- Intimacy then becomes cold and degrading, leading the couple farther apart, not closer together.
- The Germans found, however, that living apart slows the decline in female libido, confirming the maxim ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’.
Synonyms
separately, not together, independently, on one's own;
separated, divorced
2To or on one side; at a distance from the main body: Isabel stepped away from Joanna and stood apart...
- I'm still wondering about the man in the plumed turban standing apart and detached watching sailors and vendors at work.
- A cynic would say that this writer who claimed to stand alone and apart was actually quite prepared to lose himself in the herd.
- The question that can be asked is: can a certain percentage of replenishable groundwater be considered to be set apart for agriculture?
Synonyms
to one side, aside, to the side;
separately, alone, by oneself/itself;
distant, isolated, cut off
2.1Used after a noun to indicate that someone or something has qualities which mark them out from other people or things: wrestlers were a breed apart...
- But what really sets the 80s apart was the quality of teen flicks.
- He shot four superb points but it was his overall winning, carrying of and running off the ball and passing that marked him apart.
- It's said one quality that sets Rove apart is his ability to see the whole playing field in politics.
2.2Used to indicate that one is dismissing something from consideration or moving from one tone or topic to another: Alaska apart, much of America’s energy business concentrates on producing gas joking apart, they do a really remarkable job...
- Financial considerations apart, was he worth all that palaver?
- Though joking apart and with an eye on why we admire the Austin Ambassador so damn much, that crude range of engines were all service friendly and able to hit a hundred thousand miles with the right amount of care.
- Jokes apart, she's also been a convincing character actress.
3So as to be shattered; into pieces: he leapt out of the car just before it was blown apart...
- I was going to take her words apart piece by piece.
- And then you start tearing it apart in bits and pieces and start writing notes to yourself, remember in scene so and so you're going to do so and so, so set it up now.
- The blast, which occurred at around 11.40 am, ripped apart piece of the pavement, throwing concrete and other debris on the roadway.
Synonyms
to pieces, to bits, in pieces;
up;
in two
literary asunder
Phrases
apart from
Derivatives
apartness
- Many of these pictures cast a merciless light at the apartness, rather then togetherness, of man and woman.
- Throughout the film, Ayer and the film's director, Antoine Fuqua, make a point of reinforcing Alonzo's apartness from other cops, and, by extension, from methods of traditional policing.
- The proposal of secular sainthood in MacCabe's book was begging to be made on behalf of the man who has always been worshipped for his apartness, his aloneness, his unprecedented success at staying dislodged from the rest of us.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French, from Latin a parte 'at the side'.
part from Old English:
This is from Latin pars, part- ‘part’, the same Latin source that gave us depart (Middle English); particle (Late Middle English); particular (Late Middle English) ‘small part’ with the sense ‘attentive to detail’ developing E17th; participate ‘take part in’ (early 16th century); partisan (mid 16th century) ‘one who takes the part of’; partition (Late Middle English) ‘something that divides into parts’; and party (Middle English). This last was originally used in the sense of a political party, and only developed the social gathering sense in the early 18th century. Latin a parte ‘at the side’ gives us apart (Late Middle English), and via French, apartment (mid 17th century), while Latin impartare ‘give a share of’ gives us impart (Late Middle English) and impartial (late 16th century).