isolate

Universal Words verb [VN] 1 ~ sb / yourself / sth (from sb/sth) to separate sb/sth physically or socially from other people or things: Patients with the disease should be isolated. * He was immediately isolated from the other prisoners. 2 ~ sth (from sth) to separate a part of a situation, problem, idea, etc. so that you can see what it is and deal with it separately: It is possible to isolate a number of factors that contributed to her downfall. 3 ~ sth (from sth) (technical) to separate a single substance, cell, etc. from others so that you can study it: Researchers are still trying to isolate the gene that causes this abnormality.