"separating" in the verb sense

1. separate, divide

act as a barrier between stand between

"The mountain range divides the two countries"

2. separate, disunite, divide, part

force, take, or pull apart

"He separated the fighting children"

"Moses parted the Red Sea"

3. distinguish, separate, differentiate, secern, secernate, severalize, severalise, tell, tell apart

mark as different

"We distinguish several kinds of maple"

4. divide, split, split up, separate, dissever, carve up

separate into parts or portions

"divide the cake into three equal parts"

"The British carved up the Ottoman Empire after World War I"

5. separate

divide into components or constituents

"Separate the wheat from the chaff"

6. classify, class, sort, assort, sort out, separate

arrange or order by classes or categories

"How would you classify these pottery shards

7. separate, divide

make a division or separation

8. separate, part, split up, split, break, break up

discontinue an association or relation go different ways

"The business partners broke over a tax question"

"The couple separated after 25 years of marriage"

"My friend and I split up"

9. separate, part, split

go one's own way move apart

"The friends separated after the party"

10. break, separate, split up, fall apart, come apart

become separated into pieces or fragments

"The figurine broke"

"The freshly baked loaf fell apart"

11. discriminate, separate, single out

treat differently on the basis of sex or race

12. separate, divide, part

come apart

"The two pieces that we had glued separated"

13. branch, ramify, fork, furcate, separate

divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork

"The road forks"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

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