Library / English Dictionary

INSULATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Place or set apart

Example:

They isolated the political prisoners from the other inmates

Synonyms:

insulate; isolate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "insulate" is one way to...):

discriminate; separate; single out (treat differently on the basis of sex or race)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "insulate"):

segregate (separate or isolate (one thing) from another and place in a group apart from others)

ghettoise; ghettoize (put in a ghetto)

cloister (seclude from the world in or as if in a cloister)

seclude; sequester; sequestrate; withdraw (keep away from others)

quarantine (place into enforced isolation, as for medical reasons)

maroon (leave stranded on a desert island without resources)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

insulation (the state of being isolated or detached)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Protect from heat, cold, or noise by surrounding with insulating material

Example:

We had his bedroom insulated before winter came

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "insulate" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "insulate"):

weatherstrip (provide with weatherstripping)

soundproof (insulate against noise)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

insulant (insulating material that reduces or prevents the transmission of heat or sound or electricity)

insulation (the act of protecting something by surrounding it with material that reduces or prevents the transmission of sound or heat or electricity)

insulation (insulating material that reduces or prevents the transmission of heat or sound or electricity)

insulator (a material such as glass or porcelain with negligible electrical or thermal conductivity)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The snow cover is like a shield that can insulate sea ice, said Son Nghiem of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, principal investigator for BROMEX and a coauthor of the new study.

(Snow cover on Arctic Sea ice has thinned 30 to 50 percent, NASA)