ASUNDER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does asunder mean? 

• ASUNDER (adjective)
  The adjective ASUNDER has 1 sense:

1. widely separated especially in space

  Familiarity information: ASUNDER used as an adjective is very rare.

• ASUNDER (adverb)
  The adverb ASUNDER has 1 sense:

1. into parts or pieces

  Familiarity information: ASUNDER used as an adverb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ASUNDER (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Widely separated especially in space

Context example:

as wide asunder as pole from pole

Similar:

separate (independent; not united or joint)

• ASUNDER (adverb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Into parts or pieces

Synonyms:

apart; asunder

Context example:

torn asunder

 Context examples 

These last words were shot out of him, as though the constraint which he was evidently setting upon himself had suddenly and utterly burst asunder.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Life streamed through him in splendid flood, glad and rampant, until it seemed that it would burst him asunder in sheer ecstasy and pour forth generously over the world.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

I want you to stand between Rosa Dartle and me, and keep us asunder.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The glimmering vision was rent asunder and dissipated by Arthur, who, all evening, had been trying to draw his wild man out.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He desired I would stand like a Colossus, with my legs as far asunder as I conveniently could.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Tell me, Aylward, said Alleyne earnestly, with his hands outstretched to keep the pair asunder, what is the cause of quarrel, that we may see whether honorable settlement may not be arrived at?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As she sat with the paper folded between her hands, the charred log fell asunder.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The iron gates and the front-door were not twenty yards asunder;—they were all three soon in the hall, and Harriet immediately sinking into a chair fainted away.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

He would look for her, he would find her out before the evening were over, and at present, perhaps, it was as well to be asunder.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Happily, however, she was not left to weigh and decide between opposite inclinations and doubtful notions of right; there was no occasion to determine whether she ought to keep Edmund and Mary asunder or not.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)