to partition off
- phrasal verb
- The conference room was partitioned off with walls to provide separate areas for breakout sessions.
- rooms partitioned off
- office partitioned off
- partitioned off a section
Examples
-
What what we're doing is partitioning the piece of paper into parts with using numbers.
-
He got up from his table and threaded his way to the back of the trailer, where a tiny cubicle had been partitioned off.
Fiction book (1990) -
And what we're trying to do is partition them into groups of size T.
-
The social worker had an office partitioned off in the back.
Fiction book (1991) -
"This area here will be partitioned off to form my private office," he said, then went on to detail the equipment and supplies he required.
Fiction book (1995) -
The dining room is partitioned off with screens into a Western side and a Chinese side.
Fiction book (1996) -
In large restaurants, noisy family parties were partitioned off in sections, each complete with a color TV and a mah-jongg set.
Fiction book (1991) -
The far end of the room was partitioned off as cubicles for our office manager and her assistant, and the back room had been turned into offices for the candidate and his campaign manager to use whenever they were in town.
Fiction book (2001) -
At the Soroka Hospital, delivery rooms are highly equipped, but wards are still crowded, and both delivery compartments and recovery rooms are partitioned off only by screens.
Academic text (2009) -
The office was partitioned off to create a private space for meetings.
Synonyms
To split something into parts or groups
To break something into two or more parts
To break into parts or pieces
To make something into smaller pieces using a knife or tool
Separate something into smaller pieces
To divide something into smaller parts
To separate parts of your life, work, or feelings so they stay apart
To divide something into parts to share between people
To divide something into separate parts
To divide something into parts
To split something into smaller parts
To divide something into parts to give out
To divide something into separate parts
To divide something into parts and give each part to different people
Make part of a room private using a curtain or divider
To divide something into parts and give each part to different people
To divide a space with a wall or curtain to make a new area
To make part of a room private by closing a curtain
To divide a river or canal into parts using locks
To divide something into smaller parts
To divide something into separate parts
Antonyms
How Divided
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to divide an area into separate parts' is directly derivable from 'partition' (to divide into parts) combined with the particle 'off' which adds a sense of separation or isolation. This follows regular verb+particle composition patterns and is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Partition off comes from the simple image of putting a physical partition or screen to cut something off from the rest. Imagine fixing a wall or curtain to make a smaller room, and that's why it means 'to divide an area into separate parts'.