estrange Meaning, Definition & Usage

verb remove from customary environment or associations
- years of boarding school estranged the child from her home
verb arouse hostility or indifference in where there had formerly been love, affection, or friendliness
alien; disaffect; alienate.
- She alienated her friends when she became fanatically religious

OF. estrangier to remove, F. étranger, L. extraneare to treat as a stranger, from extraneus strange. See Strange.

imperfect & past participle Estranged ; present participle & verbal noun Estranging

To withdraw; to withhold; hence, reflexively, to keep at a distance; to cease to be familiar and friendly with.
We must estrange our belief from everything which is not clearly and distinctly evidenced. Glanvill.

Had we . . . estranged ourselves from them in things indifferent. Hooker.
To divert from its original use or purpose, or from its former possessor; to alienate.
They . . . have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods. Jer. xix. 4.
To alienate the affections or confidence of; to turn from attachment to enmity or indifference.
I do not know, to this hour, what it is that has estranged him from me. Pope.

He . . . had pretended to be estranged from the Whigs, and had promised to act as a spy upon them. Macaulay.