in a vacuum

in a vacuum

In total isolation; having no interaction with or connection to other people, places, or actions. Your actions don't occur in a vacuum; they affect everyone else here, too! Being in such a remote, rural town can sometimes feel like living in a vacuum.
See also: vacuum
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

in a vacuum

COMMON If something exists or happens in a vacuum, it seems to exist or happen separately from the things that you would expect it to be connected with. Property values do not exist in a vacuum. The market value of a house can fall if the biggest employer in town closes or a noisy club opens next door. Such decisions do not occur in a political vacuum, but have serious political implications both at home and abroad.
See also: vacuum
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

do something in a ˈvacuum

do something alone or separately from other people, events, etc., especially when there should be a connection: No novel is written in a vacuum. There are always influences from past writers.
See also: something, vacuum
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017
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References in classic literature ?
But, when we arrive in the moon, during its fifteen days of night at either face, we shall have leisure to make the experiment, for our satellite lies in a vacuum."
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This led to their working at night, by light produced in a vacuum by means of Ruhmkorff's apparatus, which threw an artificial brightness into the depths of the Columbiad.
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However, citing Andrews,(12) the court observed that the hypothetical sale should not be constructed in a vacuum, isolated from the actual facts that affect the value of the stock in the decedent's hands.
"Swing vote" attributes of transferred stock: implications for minority interest discounts
Hutt, who has been using break-even analysis with small business owners for 12 years, laments that many entrepreneurs plan for their business in a vacuum.
Business management: planning for profit
Moreover, Newton showed that many of the existing ideas were incorrect--Descartes had the notion, for example, that the planets move not in a vacuum but in a sea of material that swirls in huge vortices.
Celebrating Newton: the legacy and legend of Isaac Newton live on 300 years after the publication of his masterpiece, the Principia
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