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1. To separate, to set apart from others; that which is so treated. 2. To free of chemical contaminants. 3. In psychoanalysis, to separate ideas, experiences, or memories from the affects pertaining to them. 4. In group psychotherapy, an individual who is not responded to by others in the group. 5. Viable organisms separated on a single occasion from a sample taken from a host or culture system. 6. A population that for geographic, linguistic, cultural, social, religious, or other reasons is subject to little or no gene flow. SYN: genetic i.. [It. isolare; Mediev. L. insulo, pp. -atus, to insulate, fr. L. insula, island]
- mating i. a population separated from its neighbors by any means so that all or most matings occur within the population group.
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a) to separate (one with a contagious disease) from others not similarly infected
b) to separate (as a chemical compound) from all other substances: obtain pure or in a free state
iso·late 'ī-sə-lət, -.lāt n
1) an individual (as a spore or single organism), a viable part of an organism (as a cell), or a strain that has been isolated (as from diseased tissue, contaminated water, or the air) also a pure culture produced from such an isolate
2) a relatively homogeneous population separated from related populations by geographic, biologic, or social factors or by human intervention
3) a socially withdrawn individual
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iso·late (iґso-lāt) 1. to separate from other persons, materials, or objects. 2. in microbiology, to obtain from a source such as a clinical specimen a pure strain that may have been part of a mixed primary culture. 3. a population that has been obtained by isolation (such as bacteria or other cells obtained in pure culture), or a group of individuals prevented by geographic, ecologic, or social barriers from interbreeding with others of their kind, and thus differentiated by the accumulation of new characteristics.Medical dictionary. 2011.