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DETACHMENT
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of releasing from an attachment or connection
Synonyms:
detachment; disengagement
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("detachment" is a kind of...):
separation (the act of dividing or disconnecting)
Derivation:
detach (cause to become detached or separated; take off)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Coming apart
Synonyms:
breakup; detachment; separation
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("detachment" is a kind of...):
alteration; change; modification (an event that occurs when something passes from one state or phase to another)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "detachment"):
breach; break; falling out; rift; rupture; severance (a personal or social separation (as between opposing factions))
break (the occurrence of breaking)
Derivation:
detach (come to be detached)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Avoiding emotional involvement
Synonyms:
detachment; withdrawal
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("detachment" is a kind of...):
indifference (unbiased impartial unconcern)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A small unit of troops of special composition
Classified under:
Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects
Hypernyms ("detachment" is a kind of...):
army unit (a military unit that is part of an army)
Meronyms (members of "detachment"):
flanker (a soldier who is a member of a detachment assigned to guard the flanks of a military formation)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "detachment"):
bodyguard (a group of men who escort and protect some important person)
patrol (a detachment used for security or reconnaissance)
picket (a detachment of troops guarding an army from surprise attack)
press gang (a detachment empowered to force civilians to serve in the army or navy)
provost guard (a detachment under the command of a provost marshall)
rearguard (a detachment assigned to protect the rear of a (retreating) military body)
Derivation:
detach (separate (a small unit) from a larger, especially for a special assignment)
Sense 5
Meaning:
The state of being isolated or detached
Example:
the insulation of England was preserved by the English Channel
Synonyms:
detachment; insularism; insularity; insulation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("detachment" is a kind of...):
isolation (a state of separation between persons or groups)
Context examples:
Removal, separation, detachment, extirpation, or eradication of a body part, pathway, or function by light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.
(Laser Ablation, NCI Thesaurus)
Retinopathy associated with diabetes mellitus, which may be of the background type, progressively characterized by microaneurysms, interretinal punctuate macular edema, or of the proliferative type, characterized by neovascularization of the retina and optic disk, which may project into the vitreous, proliferation of fibrous tissue, vitreous hemorrhage, and retinal detachment.
(Diabetic Retinopathy, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)
You talked of expected horrors in London—and instead of instantly conceiving, as any rational creature would have done, that such words could relate only to a circulating library, she immediately pictured to herself a mob of three thousand men assembling in St. George's Fields, the Bank attacked, the Tower threatened, the streets of London flowing with blood, a detachment of the Twelfth Light Dragoons (the hopes of the nation) called up from Northampton to quell the insurgents, and the gallant Captain Frederick Tilney, in the moment of charging at the head of his troop, knocked off his horse by a brickbat from an upper window.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
The state of his health was not a matter in which he himself took the faintest interest, for his mental detachment was absolute, but he was induced at last, on the threat of being permanently disqualified from work, to give himself a complete change of scene and air.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
I may have commented upon my friend’s power of mental detachment, but never have I wondered at it more than upon that spring morning in Cornwall when for two hours he discoursed upon celts, arrowheads, and shards, as lightly as if no sinister mystery were waiting for his solution.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The sharp jut of a wall accounted for the detachment of the wheel which was now getting considerable attention from half a dozen curious chauffeurs.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
In the Argonne Forest I took two machine-gun detachments so far forward that there was a half mile gap on either side of us where the infantry couldn't advance.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
