| English Dictionary |
DETACHED
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
| IPA (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does detached mean?
• DETACHED (adjective)
The adjective DETACHED has 6 senses:
1. showing lack of emotional involvement
2. being or feeling set or kept apart from others
3. no longer connected or joined
4. used of buildings; standing apart from others
5. lacking affection or warm feeling
6. not fixed in position
Familiarity information: DETACHED used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Showing lack of emotional involvement
Synonyms:
degage; detached; uninvolved
Context example:
an uninvolved bystander
Similar:
unconcerned (lacking in interest or care or feeling)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Being or feeling set or kept apart from others
Synonyms:
detached; isolated; separated; set-apart
Context example:
had a set-apart feeling
Similar:
separate (independent; not united or joint)
Sense 3
Meaning:
No longer connected or joined
Synonyms:
detached; separated
Context example:
the separated spacecraft will return to their home bases
Similar:
unconnected (not joined or linked together)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Used of buildings; standing apart from others
Context example:
a detached garage
Similar:
freestanding; separate (standing apart; not attached to or supported by anything)
semidetached (attached on one side only)
Domain category:
architecture (the discipline dealing with the principles of design and construction and ornamentation of fine buildings)
Antonym:
attached (used of buildings joined by common sidewalls)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Lacking affection or warm feeling
Synonyms:
detached; unaffectionate; uncaring
Context example:
an uncaring person
Similar:
unloving (not giving or reciprocating affection)
Sense 6
Meaning:
Not fixed in position
Synonyms:
detached; free
Context example:
he pulled his arm free and ran
Similar:
unfixed (not firmly placed or set or fastened)
Context examples
I'm too detached to talk scandal, and yet at scientific conversaziones I HAVE heard something of Challenger, for he is one of those men whom nobody can ignore.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Rearrangement in which part of a chromosome is detached by breakage and becomes attached to another chromosome.
(Chromosomal Translocation, NIH CRISP Thesaurus)
William and Fanny were the most detached.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Von Bork detached a small key from his watch chain, and after some considerable manipulation of the lock he swung open the heavy door.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The air was thick with flying wreckage, detached ropes and stays were hissing and coiling like snakes, and down through it all crashed the gaff of the foresail.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
Briarbrae proved to be a large detached house standing in extensive grounds within a few minutes’ walk of the station.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He worked on in the daze, strangely detached from the world around him, feeling like a familiar ghost among these literary trappings of his former life.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Mr. Bingley and Jane were standing together, a little detached from the rest, and talked only to each other.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
When marine organisms ingest these microplastics, the pollutant particles get detached from them, contaminating organisms' tissues and harming their nervous and hormonal systems.
(Microplastic pollution adds to oceans’ problems, scidev.net)
Morphologically, it shows papillae with detached cell clusters.
(Borderline Ovarian Mixed Epithelial Tumor, NCI Thesaurus)
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