separation anxiety

Definition of separation anxiety

: a form of anxiety experienced by a young child and caused by separation from a significant nurturant figure and typically a parent or from familiar surroundings

Examples of separation anxiety in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web If so, your dog might have a case of separation anxiety. — Texas A&m University, Houston Chronicle, "PET TALK: Home alone: Separation anxiety in dogs," 27 Sep. 2019 As predicted in the literature, secure and insecure-ambivalent felines showed more separation anxiety than felines whose behavior fell into the insecure-avoidant category. — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, "Will you still need me, will you still feed me: Yes, your cat bonds with you," 23 Sep. 2019 The companies selling the facial-recognition access advertise it as an easy solution to separation anxiety for always-on parents eager to capture every childhood memory, even when those memories don’t include them. — Drew Harwell, The Denver Post, "Summer camps use facial recognition so parents can watch from home," 25 Aug. 2019 Some dogs with more severe separation anxiety rip up carpet, chew on walls and even bust out windows. — Karina Bland, azcentral, "Why does my dog wait to eat his treat until I get home? Turns out I'm kind of a big deal," 27 June 2019 Gonzalez adopted Zee, a 30-pound English pointer hound mix, from Animal Care Services about a year ago. Zee suffered from separation anxiety, so Gonzalez never kenneled Zee. — Cathy M. Rosenthal, ExpressNews.com, "San Antonio man finds dog he thought was lost to fire," 13 Sep. 2019 Your late sleeper becomes an early bird, your independent preschooler develops separation anxiety. — Carrie Melago, Washington Post, "The unique horror of trimming a newborn’s nails (and the lesson it taught me about parenting)," 31 July 2019 Today’s feeders are more sophisticated and, in some cases like pet monitoring systems, now have the ability to record messages for your furry friends, helping to lift the spirits of a dog that suffers from separation anxiety or loneliness. — Nicole Forsyth, The Mercury News, "Dollars and Pets: Automatic food dishes go high tech," 27 June 2019 Nonetheless, the Denver front office seems to suffer separation anxiety at the mere mention of life without Millsap. — Mark Kiszla, The Denver Post, "Kiszla: With NBA championship race wide open, Nuggets’ big move in free agency will be … Paul Millsap? Are they nuts?," 26 June 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'separation anxiety.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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Last Updated

14 Nov 2019

Time Traveler for separation anxiety

The first known use of separation anxiety was in 1943

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More Definitions for separation anxiety

separation anxiety

noun

English Language Learners Definition of separation anxiety

: a feeling of strong fear and anxiety that is experienced by a young child when the child is separated from a parent

See the full definition for separation anxiety in the English Language Learners Dictionary

separation anxiety

noun

Medical Definition of separation anxiety

: a form of anxiety that is caused by separation from a significant nurturant figure and typically a parent or from familiar surroundings and that has an onset during childhood or sometimes adolescence