Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Detach

Detach , transitive verb

[French détacher (compare Italian distaccare, staccare); pref. (Latin dis) + the root found also in English attach. See Attach, and compare Staccato.]

1.
To part; to separate or disunite; to disengage; -- the opposite of attach; as, to detach the coats of a bulbous root from each other; to detach a man from a leader or from a party.
2.
To separate for a special object or use; -- used especially in military language; as, to detach a ship from a fleet, or a company from a regiment.

Detach , intransitive verb

To push asunder; to come off or separate from anything; to disengage.
[A vapor] detaching, fold by fold, From those still heights. — Tennyson