detached, ppl. a.
(dɪˈtætʃt)
[f. detach v. + -ed.]
a. Disconnected, disengaged, separated; separate, unattached, standing apart, isolated.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Bastion detached or cut off, that which is separated from the Body of the Works. 1712 J. James tr. Le Blond's Gardening 29 The House stands detached. 1727–51 Chambers Cycl. s.v., In painting, the figures are said to be well detached, or loosened, when they stand free, and disengaged from each other. 1791 Boswell Johnson Advt., Innumerable detached particulars. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. II. 77 Ore found in large detached masses. 1801 C. Smith Solitary Wanderer II. 38, I took a small, but elegant, detached house. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. vii. 47 In the centre..stands a detached column of granite. 1868 Freeman Norm. Conq. (1876) II. ix. 409 A few detached events must be mentioned. 1879 Sir G. G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 149 Attached and detached shafts may be used alternately. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 27/2 The villa stands alone, or as it is termed ‘detached’. |
b. Of persons, their conduct, etc.: characterized by detachment (see detachment 4 b).
| 1913 D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers xii. 322 He was pale and detached-looking. 1924 A. D. Sedgwick Little French Girl ii. xi, She might be detached, and even callous; but she was not brazen. Ibid. iv. i, Someone quite, quite detached and devoted must fall in love with her. 1948 D. Cecil 2 Quiet Lives ii. ii. 127 Gray's maturity appears in the detached clear-sightedness with which he could observe his own character. |
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Add: 2. Special collocation: detached retina Path., a retina which has become detached from the underlying layer of epithelium; also, = retinal detachment s.v. *retinal a. b.
| 1863 W. Bowman in Rep. R. Ophthalm. Hospital IV. 134 When I first operated in cases of *detached retina, I only entertained faint hopes of arresting the spread of the disorganisation. 1966 Brit. Jrnl. Ophthalm. L. 268 Between November, 1961 and October, 1964, 182 cases of detached retina came to surgery. |