segregate

segregate from (someone or something)

1. To separate or become isolated from other people or things within some larger group. The adult males of the species segregate from the rest of the herd during mass migration. The four of us just kind of segregated from the others in the class over the course of the semester.

2. To separate or isolate one or more people or things from other people or things within some larger group. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is used between "segregate" and "from." The teacher wanted to segregate the boys from the girls in the classroom. We're trying to segregate these aberrant data sets from the rest of the results.

See also: segregate

segregate into (something or some place)

1. To separate into one or more groups or sections isolated from some larger group. Instead of mingling and intermixing at the company picnic, everyone just segregated into little groups of people from their departments. The cells tend to segregate into separate groups following exposure to the radiation.

2. To separate one or more people or things into one or more groups or sections that are discrete or isolated from some larger group. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is used between "segregate" and "into." The teacher segregated me into a group with the other three boys in the class. We'll need to segregate these data points into discrete groups in order to evaluate the effect of the experiment.

3. To separate one or more people or things into some place or thing that is removed or isolated from others within a group. In this usage, a noun or pronoun is used between "segregate" and "into." We need to be careful to segregate any produce showing signs of disease into their own storage containers, lest we risk cross-contaminating the rest of the harvest. The new king began segregating all people who had shown loyalty to the previous ruler into labor camps.

See also: segregate

Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

segregate (someone) from (someone else)

 and segregate (something) from (something else)

to separate someone from someone else or something from something else. I was asked to segregate the swimmers from the nonswimmers. Let's segregate the larger fish from the smaller ones.

See also: segregate

segregate (someone, something, or an animal) into something

to isolate someone, an animal, or something into something or a special place. We segregated the infected people into a separate room. Let's segregate the white pigs into a different pen.

See also: segregate

segregate something from something else Go to segregate someone from someone

else.

See also: else, go, segregate, to

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.