isolated, ppl. a.
(ˈaɪsəleɪtɪd, ˈɪs-)
[f. F. isolé (1642 in Hatz.-Darm.), ad. It. isolato (see isolate a.) + -ed. (The French isolé was at first used unchanged or with -d, isolé'd.) Since the formation of isolate v., isolated has ranked as its pa. pple.]
a. Placed or standing apart or alone; detached or separate from other things or persons; unconnected with anything else; solitary.
| [a 1751 Bolingbroke (N. & Q. 25 Feb. 1854), The events..appear to us very often original, unprepared, single, and unrelative, if I may use such a word for want of a better. In French, I would say, Isolés. 1755 Chesterfield Lett. iii. xxvii. Misc. Wks. 1777 II. 491 As for hearing I have none left; so that I am isolé in the midst of my friends. 1779 in J. H. Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1843–4) IV. 214 What must such a little isolé mortal as I do? 1779 G. Keate Sk. fr. Nat. (ed. 2) I. 40 You see me the same isolé'd, un⁓connected creature I was then. 1783 Johnson 21 Mar. in Boswell, Sir..this Hanoverian family is isolée here. They have no friends.] |
| 1763 Warburton Doctr. Grace Pref. 4 Short, isolated Sentences were the mode in which Ancient wisdom delighted to convey its precepts for the regulation of human conduct. 1800 Brit. Critic Oct., The affected, frenchified, and unnecessary word isolated is not English, and we trust never will be. [Todd 1818 adds: ‘I fully agree with the writer in considering it a most affected word’.] 1811 Sporting Mag. XXXVIII. 83 He appeared as an isolated inhabitant of this great globe. 1813 Shelley Q. Mab ii. 253 High on an isolated pinnacle. 1824 W. Irving T. Trav. II. 102 Many an isolated inn among the lonely parts of the Roman territories. 1840 Carlyle Heroes v. (1872) 165 Johnson's youth was poor, isolated, hopeless, very miserable. 1865 Lubbock Preh. Times viii. (1869) 254 Occasionally we find them isolated, but more frequently in groups. 1875 Tylor in Encycl. Brit. II. 119/1 What philologists describe as isolated languages, such as the Basque appears to be, are rather isolated groups of dialects. 1879 M. Arnold Ess. Democr. 45 Collective action is more efficacious than isolated individual effort. 1881 Flower in Nature No. 619. 437 When groups of animals become so far differentiated from each other as to represent separate species, they remain isolated. |
b. Chess.
isolated pawn: see
quots.| 1842 C. Pearson Chess Exemplified 27 An isolated pawn is one that has no comrade on the same or either adjoining file, so that he requires the support of a Piece. 1847 H. Staunton Chess-Player's Handbk. 23 A Pawn which stands alone, without the support or protection of other Pawns, is termed an isolated pawn. 1950 S. Tartakover in R. N. Coles Chess-Player's Week-End Bk. 153 An isolated pawn spreads gloom all over the chess-board. 1957 Cunnington & Du Mont Chess Traps & Stratagems ii. 75 An isolated pawn is normally weak, a pawn supported by its neighbours is a strong asset. |
Hence
ˈisolatedly adv.| 1843 Mozley Ess., Strafford (1878) I. 82 All the knots and rough spots..were brought up, singly and isolatedly enlarged upon. 1865 Stirling Secr. Hegel I. ii. 50 Being, looked at isolatedly, vanishes of its own accord, and disappears in its own opposite. 1877 Huxley Anat. Inv. Anim. xii. 685 The appearance, between the epiblast and the hypoblast, of cytodes, either isolatedly or in a continuous layer. |