detachde‧tach /dɪˈtætʃ/ ●○○ verb 
Word Origin Examples
You can detach the hood from the jacket. Please detach and fill out the application form.2detach yourself from somebody/something to try to be less involved in or less concerned about a situation: Doctors have to detach themselves from their feelings.
Word OriginWORD ORIGINdetach
Verb TableOrigin:
1600-1700 French détacher, from Old French destachier, from atachier ‘to attach’VERB TABLE
detach
| Simple Form | ||
| Present | I, you, we, they | detach |
| he, she, it | detaches | |
| Past | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | detached |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have detached |
| he, she, it | has detached | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had detached |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will detach |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have detached |
| Continuous Form | ||
| Present | I | am detaching |
| he, she, it | is detaching | |
| you, we, they | are detaching | |
| Past | I, he, she, it | was detaching |
| you, we, they | were detaching | |
| Present perfect | I, you, we, they | have been detaching |
| he, she, it | has been detaching | |
| Past perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | had been detaching |
| Future | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will be detaching |
| Future perfect | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | will have been detaching |
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
Thesaurus- Please detach the last section of this form, fill it in, and return it to us.
- The control unit can be detached from the base.
- The tires on the toy cars may detach and become a hazard to small children.
- Death, with which they lived so intimately, could not be detached from their lives as an object of contemplation.
- Eventually, if the body lay undisturbed for long enough, the skin might even detach itself from the body.
- Health care needs to be detached from them and funded from general taxes.
- Men, women and babies are detached in small groups or bunched together in fantastic clusters, gesticulating madly.
- Now fill in the application form on pages 3 and 4 and detach these Notes.
- She fiddled around for a while, and cursed and muttered before she managed to get one detached.
Longman Language Activatorto remove something that is fixed or joined to something else► take off
Collocations to remove something that is fixed to something else: take something off: · I took the lid off and tasted the soup.take off something: · He took off the old handle and fixed a new one in its place.
► remove to take off something that forms a piece or part of something else or that covers something else. Remove is more formal than take off , and is used especially in writing: · Remove all the fat, then cut the meat into cubes.· Make sure that the engine has cooled down before removing the radiator cap.remove from: · She was in the hospital, having a lump removed from her breast.
► detach formal to remove a piece or part of something that is designed to be removed: · Please detach the last section of this form, fill it in, and return it to us.· The control unit can be detached from the base.
► break/tear/cut off to remove a part of something by breaking, tearing, cutting etc it: break/tear/cut off something: · A van bumped into us, damaging one of the headlights and breaking off the aerial.· Tear off the coupon and send it to this address.· Winds reached over 100 mph, tearing off roofs and flattening trees.· He used to catch spiders and cut off their legs.break/tear/cut something off: · Gerard broke the handle off accidentally when he was trying to open the door.· I'd like to keep this part -- is it alright if I tear it off?· He cut the top off the coconut.· He cut all his hair off as a protest.
► pick to remove fruit from trees or flowers from the ground: · Migrant workers come to the orchard each autumn to pick apples.· I'll pick a few flowers to take to mum's.
to deliberately separate yourself from another person, group etc► split from to deliberately separate yourself from a larger group or organization, especially because you no longer want to work with them: · Last year, he split from the rock band, "Hot City'.· The left wing of the party is likely to split from its parent organization.
► cut yourself off to deliberately separate yourself from a group of people, usually permanently, because you want to be alone or independent: · She had cut herself off, and when David left her she had no one to turn to.cut yourself off from: · Quite deliberately, she cut herself off from the rest of the family.
► sever links/connections/relations/ties to formally and permanently end a relationship with another person, company, country etc: · Throughout the seventies, the government was urged to sever all links with South Africa.· Tobolewski, like many immigrants into America, severed all his ties with his Polish background.
► detach/distance yourself from to deliberately separate yourself from a person, organization etc, because you do not want people to think you are connected with it or are responsible for something that they are doing: · The government is seeking to detach itself from the latest financial scandal.· Diplomats saw his resignation as a way of distancing himself from an unpopular government.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES► a detached garage
Phrases (=not joined to a house)· The house benefits from a large detached garage.
► detached property especially British English (=not joined to another house)· It is a modern detached property with five bedrooms.
► semi-detached British English (=joined to one other house)· This semi-detached property is located in one of the most sought-after areas of the town.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB► more· Her comments were considered especially important since, not being quite so involved with the work, they were perhaps more detached.· They are bigger, richer, greedier, more detached now.
NOUN► group· After a few minutes one of the men detached himself from the group and walked after Fred at a smart pace.· Men, women and babies are detached in small groups or bunched together in fantastic clusters, gesticulating madly.· The Station Chief detached himself from the group.· The mood somber on the grassy knolls, I stood, feeling like an observer, detached from the group, defeated.· After a while Harbury and Linda detached themselves from a group and carried their drinks over to join Rain.· Two vaguely serpentine exters detached themselves from the group.
► semi· We parked in a pleasant street, lined with trees and filled with detached and semi-detached suburban villas.
VERB► become· Rattles develop and pieces of trim become detached.· Cooley does not become defensive and detached.· His fingers became fat maggots and detached themselves from his doughnut hands.· All my resolve during my walks along the Seine to become detached from my family vanished in an instant.· But power, by the minute, is becoming detached from the public support that gives it meaning.· A regimental musician who had become detached from his unit, he followed in the wake of the attack as a spectator.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY► detach yourself from somebody/something
Word family- In order to do her job during the war, she detached herself from her feelings.
- Alex detached himself from the crowd and came towards them.
- If you wished to detach yourself from the soul of Salomon Brothers, London was the only place to go.
- It detached itself from the thicket and reached rose-thorn fingers into the hard earth.
- My muscles went limp; my skin melted into a buttery ooze; my head detached itself from my body.
- One of the undulating shapes detached itself from the wall and advanced towards the shining executioner as though blind to its danger.
- When thoroughly replenished it would detach itself from the socket and renew its adventures across the floor!
- Wynne-Jones detached himself from the supporting arm and came over to Tallis.
WORD FAMILYnounattachmentdetachmentadjectiveattached ≠ unattached ≠ detacheddetachableverbattach ≠ detach
1[intransitive, transitive] if you detach something, or if it detaches, it becomes separated from the thing it was attached to OPP attachdetach something from something You can detach the hood from the jacket. Please detach and fill out the application form.2detach yourself from somebody/something to try to be less involved in or less concerned about a situation: Doctors have to detach themselves from their feelings.