separator
(ˈsɛpəreɪtə(r))
Also separater.
[a. late L. sēparātor, agent-n. f. L. sēparāre to separate.]
1. One who or something which separates; spec. † one who separates from the Church, a separatist (common in the 17th c.); a critic who ascribes the Iliad and Odyssey to different authors (transl. of Gr. χωρίζων: see chorizontes).
| 1607 Scholast. Disc. agst. Antichrist ii. vi. 74 The scandal which the ceremonies giue to the Separators is greater then that which is giuen by images to Turks. 1608 Bernard Chr. Advert. 48 marg., The grieuous sinnes of the Separators. 1684 Baxter Twelve Argum. §24. 42 Are these no Scandals? or not greater than offending or displeasing the dissenting Separators? 1842 Emerson Transcend. Wks. (Bohn) II. 285 This retirement does not proceed from any whim on the part of these separators. 1860 Bp. Wilberforce Addr. Cand. Ordin. 227 In such cases, the least offences are great separators, and..angry tempers need to be handled with the gentlest and most discerning touch. 1878 Examiner 2 Mar. 273/1 So Professor Jebb is a ‘separater’ and to a certain extent a follower of Wolf. 1890 Illustr. Lond. News 27 Dec. 810/2 The terminator of delights, the separator of companions, the desolator of abodes. |
2. pl. The four teeth, two in each jaw, between the two central and the outer incisor-teeth of a horse. ? Obs.
| 1717 Hope tr. de Solleysel's Compl. Horseman. 1726 Dict. Rust. (ed. 3) s.v. Teeth, The Middle-teeth or Separators (so called because they separate the Nippers from the Corner-teeth). 1808 Compl. Grazier (ed. 3) Introd. 20 When the horse is coming four years old he loses his four separaters or middle teeth. |
3. An instrument or appliance for separating. a. An apparatus for separating grain from refuse, or for separating the various sizes of grain.
| 1830 M. Donovan Dom. Econ. I. 347 After leaving the cooling floor the grain is let into the separator. 1880 J. W. Hill Guide Agric. Implements 5 Combined Double Aspirator, Separator, and Smutter. 1884 Bath Herald 27 Dec. 6/4 From the silos the wheat runs into a separator, which extracts the large and small refuse and dirt. Ibid., In the purifying process the grain passes over a magnetic separator..which is sure to attract and hold fast..pieces of iron [etc.]. |
b. Weaving. = rave n.2 3.
| 1831 G. R. Porter Silk Manuf. 220 The instrument used for the purpose of guiding the threads of the warp and of spreading them regularly upon the yarn-roll is called a separator or ravel. 1842 [see ravel n.3]. 1845 Encycl. Metrop. VIII. 734/1 In the beaming, the weaver sometimes employs a rude sort of instrument called a separator or ravel. |
c. = cream-separator (see cream n.2 7).
| 1884 [see cream-separator]. 1887 Daily News 20 May 6/5 A separator takes in the milk hot from the cow, whirls it round at a great speed, and in two minutes the cream flows out at one pipe and the milk at another. |
d. A partition, a plate interposed between compartments, e.g. in a voltaic battery, a beehive, etc.
| 1881 T. W. Cowan Bee Keepers Guide Bk. viii. 43 Never use sections without separators. 1887 Pall Mall Gaz. 12 Aug. 10/2 The plates are zinc and carbon, the zinc being immersed in dilute sulphuric acid—the carbon in a solution of nitrate of soda. A porous separator keeps the liquids apart, save for diffusion through its pores. 1889 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 51 These pieces of paper, or thin card, can be placed by the side of the slide, thus acting as a separater and preventing breakage when they are carried about. |
e. Telegraphy. (See quot.)
| 1891 Man. Instr. Army Telegr. 86 Separators provide a simple means of doubling the capacity for work of a telegraph line, by providing on the same wire Morse and vibration circuits which are independent of each other. |
f. A contrivance for separating water from steam.
| 1834 N. W. Cundy Inland Transit 74 The purpose of the separator is to disengage or separate the water from the steam in which it is mechanically suspended. 1855 D. K. Clark Railway Mach. 152/2 Edwards' Separator, for disengaging Priming. 1901 Feilden's Mag. IV. 415 A cylindrical water separator. |
g. In various applications.
| 1881 Raymond Mining Gloss., Separator. 1. A machine for separating, with the aid of water or air, materials of different specific gravity... 2. Any machine for separating materials, as the magnetic separator, for separating magnetite from its gangue. 1884 Health Exhib. Catal. 51/1 Automatic Rain-water Separators, to reject the foul and store the clean water from roofs. 1889 Anthony's Photogr. Bull. II. 312 The centrifugal separator..is an apparatus..employed by manufacturers who want to separate relatively heavy matters suspended in a liquid. |
4. Math.
| 1869 Cayley Math. Papers (1894) VII. 402 The parallel through S to a ray meets the sphere in two points, poles of a great circle which I call a ‘separator’. |
5. attrib.
| 1896 Brannt Anim. & Veg. Fats II. 313 The oil..is, however, still mixed with some water, from which it is separated by means of a separator funnel. 1897 Daily News 23 Feb. 7/6 One of the engineers went to open the port bulkhead stop valve, when a separator pipe burst. |
Hence ˈseparatress.
| 1630 R. Johnson's Kingd. & Commw. 117 The Severne, the separatresse of Wales and England. |