The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 9 letter word ISOLATING
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
I
S
O
L
A
T
I
N
G
More clues leading to the result ISOLATING
- Is old language good for establishing a pure culture?
- Cutting off current, it’s a long shot
- Keeping away from extremely tempting liaison diabolique
- One being critical about nothing, maintaining detachment?
- Stopping the contractions in hospital
- Cold-shouldering crooked oil giants
- Cutting off a plant, thing’s not hard
- Separating from others? It is a long shot
- Pinpointing two notes in one song
- Singling out, in proviso, Latin grammar
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "maintaining detachment?" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case maintaining detachment? = isolating.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does ISOLATING mean?
ISOLATING verb- To set apart or cut off from others.
- To place in quarantine or isolation.
- To separate a substance in pure form from a mixture.
- To insulate, or make free of external influence.
- To separate a pure strain of bacteria etc. from a mixed culture.
- To insulate an electrical component from a source of electricity.
- (of languages) having low morpheme per word ratio and no inflectional morpheme