Separate food hotel dumped on island (8)
I believe the answer is:
discrete
'separate' is the definition.
('discrete' can be similar in meaning to 'separate')
'food hotel dumped on island' is the wordplay.
'food hotel' becomes 'dis' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dumped on' says to put letters next to each other.
'island' becomes 'crete' (Crete is an example).
'dis'+'crete'='DISCRETE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for discrete that I've seen before include "Individually distinct, discontinuous" , "Secret ID (anag) - separate" , "Individually distinct in discreet way" , "Individually distinct, maybe discreet" , "independent" .)