split up

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split up (third-person singular simple present splits up, present participle splitting up, simple past and past participle split up)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic, Of a group of people) Cease to be together, break apart from the group.

   After she left to go travelling, my girlfriend and I split up.

   The soldiers split up into smaller squadrons to search the building.

2. (transitive) separate, disassociate, cause to come apart.

   The brothers never behaved in class when they were together, so we had to split them up for the exam.

split up (not comparable)

1. Divided or separated.
2. (slang, obsolete) Of a person: having long legs.
   • 1913, S. A. Mussabini, Charles Ranson, The Complete Athletic Trainer, page 17:

     He should preferably be tall, weighty, well split up in the legs (especially from the hip-joint to the knee), neatly turned at the knee and ankle joints […]

• John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary

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