Detach

//dɪˈtæt͡ʃ// verb

verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To take apart from; to take off. transitive

    "to detach the tag from a newly purchased garment"

  2. 2
    cause to become detached or separated; take off wordnet
  3. 3
    To separate for a special object or use. transitive

    "to detach a ship from a fleet, or a company from a regiment"

  4. 4
    come to be detached wordnet
  5. 5
    To come off something. intransitive

    "Now that the zipper has detached, my winter coat won't keep me very warm."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    separate (a small unit) from a larger, especially for a special assignment wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
disconnectdisengageabstractaccreditallocateassign

Example

More examples

"Writing English for me has nothing whatsoever to do with England. You have to detach this international language from its land of origin."

Etymology

From Old French destachier, from the same root as attach; compare French détacher and Portuguese and Spanish destacar.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.