dissociate (noun, dissociation): to separate or sunder that which is developing as a unity, or has become one, so that it becomes two or more unrelated or partially related entities. In mental life and its expression, these entities are experienced phenomenologically as trance states, alternative states of consciousness, fugue states, or multiple personalities.

Dictionary of Sexology Project: Main Index

Dis*so"ci*ate (?), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Dissociated; p. pr. & vb. n. Dissociating.] [L. dissociatus, p. p. of dissociare to dissociate; dis- + sociare to unite, associate, socius companion. See Social.]

To separate from fellowship or union; to disunite; to disjoin; as, to dissociate the particles of a concrete substance.

Before Wyclif's death in 1384, John of Gaunt had openly dissociated himself from the reformer. A. W. Ward.

 

© Webster 1913.