remove
nounEtymology From Middle English removen, from Anglo-Norman remover, removeir, from Old French remouvoir, from Latin removēre, from re- + movēre (“to move”), equivalent to re- + move. Displaced native Old English āfierran.
9 senses
- 1The act of removing something.
- 2A dish served to replace an earlier one during a meal; a…
- 3(at some public schools) A division of the school…
- 4A step or gradation (as in the phrase "at one remove").
- 5Distance in time or space; interval.
- 6Emotional distance or indifference.
- 7State of mind allowing for a certain degree of…
- 8The transfer of one's home or business to another place; a move.
- 9The act of resetting a horse's shoe.
1
The act of removing something.
- This place should be at once both school and university, not needing a remove to any other house of scholarship.[1644], [John Milton], Of Education. To Master Samuel Hartlib, [London]: […] [Thomas Underhill and/or Thomas Johnson], →OCLC:
- And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.1764 December 19 (indicated as 1765), Oliver Goldsmith, The Traveller, or A Prospect of Society. A Poem. […], London: […] J[ohn] Newbery, […], →OCLC:
1 more example
- There is no tree admits of transplantation so well as the Elm, for a tree of twenty years growth will admit of a remove.1761, John Mordant, The Complete Steward:
2
Cooking, Food, Lifestyle Historical A dish served to replace an earlier one during a meal; a part of a new course.
- A supper brings up the rear, not forgetting the introductory luncheon, almost equalling in removes the dinner.1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Oxford, published 2009, page 16:
- An attempt at entrées and removes failed at the first dinner-party.1842, [Katherine] Thomson, chapter XIII, in Widows and Widowers. A Romance of Real Life., volume I, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 289:
3
UK (at some public schools) A division of the school, especially the form prior to last.
4
A step or gradation (as in the phrase "at one remove").
- A freeholder is but one remove from a legislator.1716 January 2 (Gregorian calendar), Joseph Addison, “The Free-holder: No. 1. Thursday, December 23. 1715.”, in The Works of the Right Honourable Joseph Addison, Esq; […], volume IV, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], published 1721, →OCLC:
- That vve may underſtand the full extent of theſe relations, vve must conſider, that tvvo objects are connected together in the imagination, not only vvhen the one is immediately reſembling, contiguous to, or the cauſe of the other, but alſo vvhen there is interpoſed betwixt them a third object, vvhich bears to both of them any of theſe relations. This may be carried on to a great length; tho' at the ſame time vve may obſerve, that each remove conſiderably vveakens the relation.1739, [David Hume], “Of the Connexion or Association of Ideas”, in A Treatise of Human Nature: […], book I (Of the Understanding), London: […] John Noon, […], →OCLC, part I (Of Ideas; Their Origin, Composition, Connexion, Abstraction, &c.), page 28:
3 more examples
- Thus though this degree of faith is but one remove from disbelief, (denial) nevertheless as much probability is given to one side of the question as the other, and we stand, as it were, on an average between two.1822, Paul Brown, “Of the Degrees of Faith, according to probability, and force of impression”, in A Disquisition on Faith, Washington, D.C.: […] [F]or the Author[, b]y Andrew Way, page 24:
- In his unfortunate absence at this far remove of 2007, Zevon's musicianship and irascible wit are as missed as ever.2007, James D. McCallister, King's Highway, page 162:
- They were standing in the foreshortened airlock approach now, having just left a gaggle of nervous techs and agents behind the sealed bulkhead. Nobody knew what they were about to unleash, so it was best to keep it as many removes from the rest of the Site as was possible. When they opened the vault door, the filtration systems would whir to life and start sifting the air for esoteric elements. Ibanez suspected it would be months before the approach was considered clean, the doors retracted and active air and pedestrian circulation restored.2022 September 9, HarryBlank, “The Mausoleum at Ipperwash”, in SCP Foundation, archived from the original on 27 May 2024:
5
Distance in time or space; interval.
- How many Masters have some stately Houses had, in the age of a small Cottage, that hath, as it were, lived, and dyed with her old Master, both dropping down together. Such vain Preservatories of us, are our Inheritances, even once removed: but look on it more Removes off, and continuing in thy Name, yet how little doth that concerne Thee (though the first Purchaser, or his Heire) Lazy Posterity, when they heare it so called know it by the Name, but not as thine; […]1654, Richard Whitlock, Zootomia; Or, Observations on the Present Manners of the English:
6
Broadly, Figuratively Emotional distance or indifference.
7
Broadly, Figuratively State of mind allowing for a certain degree of objectivity in evaluating things.
- The fact that one structure applied in the rainy season and another in the dry allowed Nambikwara chiefs to view their own social arrangements at one remove: to see them as not simply “given”, in the natural order of things, but as something at least partially open to human intervention.2021 October 19, David Graeber, David Wengrowr, “Unfreezing the ice age: the truth about humanity’s deep past”, in The Guardian, UK:
8
Dated The transfer of one's home or business to another place; a move.
- It is an English proverb that three removes are as bad as a fire.1855, John Henry Newman, Callista:
9
The act of resetting a horse's shoe.
- His horse wanted two removes; your horse wanted nails1731 (date written; published 1745), [Jonathan] Swift, Directions to Servants […], London: […] R[obert] Dodsley, […], and M. Cooper, […], →OCLC:
- Derived terms
- a far remove