apart : Idioms & Phrases

Index

break apart

  • verb take apart into its constituent pieces
    break up; dismantle; break apart; disassemble.
  • verb break violently or noisily; smash;
    crash; break up.
  • verb break up or separate
    disunify.
    • The country is disunifying
    • Yugoslavia broke apart after 1989
WordNet

come apart

  • verb become separated into pieces or fragments
    break; split up; come apart; separate.
    • The figurine broke
    • The freshly baked loaf fell apart
WordNet

drift apart

  • verb lose personal contact over time
    drift away.
    • The two women, who had been roommates in college, drifted apart after they got married
WordNet

fall apart

  • verb lose one's emotional or mental composure
    go to pieces.
    • She fell apart when her only child died
  • verb go to pieces
    break; wear out; wear; bust.
    • The lawn mower finally broke
    • The gears wore out
    • The old chair finally fell apart completely
  • verb break or fall apart into fragments
    crumble.
    • The cookies crumbled
    • The Sphinx is crumbling
  • verb become separated into pieces or fragments
    break; split up; come apart; separate.
    • The figurine broke
    • The freshly baked loaf fell apart
WordNet

keep apart

  • verb set apart from others
    sequester; isolate; keep apart; sequestrate.
    • The dentist sequesters the tooth he is working on
WordNet

know apart

  • verb recognize or perceive the difference
    discriminate.
WordNet

pick apart

  • verb find fault with; express criticism of; point out real or perceived flaws
    criticise; knock; criticize.
    • The paper criticized the new movie
    • Don't knock the food--it's free
WordNet

set apart

  • verb select something or someone for a specific purpose
    assign; specify.
    • The teacher assigned him to lead his classmates in the exercise
  • verb set apart from others
    sequester; isolate; keep apart; sequestrate.
    • The dentist sequesters the tooth he is working on
WordNet

set-apart

  • adjective satellite being or feeling set or kept apart from others
    separated; detached; isolated.
    • she felt detached from the group
    • could not remain the isolated figure he had been"- Sherwood Anderson
    • thought of herself as alone and separated from the others
    • had a set-apart feeling
WordNet

take apart

  • verb take apart into its constituent pieces
    break up; dismantle; break apart; disassemble.
  • verb divide into pieces
    discerp; dismember.
    • our department was dismembered when our funding dried up
    • The Empire was discerped after the war
  • verb make a mathematical, chemical, or grammatical analysis of; break down into components or essential features
    dissect; analyze; analyse; break down.
    • analyze a specimen
    • analyze a sentence
    • analyze a chemical compound
WordNet

taking apart

  • noun the removal of limbs; being cut to pieces
    dismemberment.
WordNet

tear apart

  • verb express a totally negative opinion of
    trash; pan.
    • The critics panned the performance
WordNet

tease apart

  • verb disentangle and raise the fibers of
    loosen; tease.
    • tease wool
WordNet

tell apart

  • verb detect with the senses
    recognize; spot; make out; recognise; distinguish; pick out; discern.
    • The fleeing convicts were picked out of the darkness by the watchful prison guards
    • I can't make out the faces in this photograph
  • verb mark as different
    secernate; severalise; separate; severalize; differentiate; distinguish; tell; secern.
    • We distinguish several kinds of maple
WordNet

To pull apart

  • to become separated by pulling; as, a rope will pull apart.
Webster 1913

To set apart

  • to separate to a particular use; to separate from the rest; to reserve.
Webster 1913