depart

Formsdeparts, departing, departed

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To set out on a journey; to begin traveling toward a destination.

   The expedition will depart for the mountains next week.

   Their ship departed from the harbor at first light.

   Similarleave, embark, sail

   Oppositearrive, return

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To leave; to go away from where one is.

   Visitors must depart once the gates close.

   The last train had already departed by the time we arrived.

   Similarleave, go (entry), exit, withdraw

   Oppositearrive, stay, remain

   Note

   A verb of leaving that began as a verb of dividing. It comes from Old French departir, from Late Latin departiō, "to divide," built from dē- "away from" and partiō "part," so to depart was to part from. It needs no object (let him depart; bankers threatening to depart in droves). The King James Bible of 1611 writes "The glory is departed from Israel," using is where modern English uses has.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To go away from a place; to leave it behind.

   Crews must depart the building during a fire drill.

   He quietly departed the room before the speeches ended.

   Similarleave, exit, vacate, quit, evacuate

   Oppositeenter

   Note

   Here the place left is a direct object, with no from: depart the territories, depart the palace, depart the room. Goldsmith uses it in 1771, and so does Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day. Richard Flanagan writes of a soul that "had departed her body." Beside the intransitive "leave", it puts the place up front and makes it the thing being left behind.

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To deviate from a standard or norm; to be different and fail to conform.

   These findings depart sharply from earlier studies.

   The film departed from the novel in several key scenes.

   Similardeviate, diverge, differ, stray, veer

   Oppositeconform, adhere

   Note

   Here the plain sense of leaving turns figurative: what is left behind is a rule, a plan or an earlier version, and the verb nearly always takes from. Legal pleading gives it a precise use, as in departing from a title or defense. James Madison applies it to the convention's plan in The Federalist (1788). Degree adverbs sit easily beside it: depart sharply, depart somewhat.

5. 5
   verbeuphemisticintransitive

   To die, expressed in a gentle or respectful way.

   Her grandmother departed quietly last winter.

   Some hope to depart this world without pain.

   Similarpass, die, expire

   Note

   A softening word for death, and an old one. Shakespeare's "knolling a departing friend" and the King James Bible's "now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace" both use it. It lives on in the fixed phrase depart this life and in the departed, meaning those who have died. Its tone is reverent and suits elegy, prayer and condolence. In casual talk it can sound stiff.

6. 6
   verbfigurativelyintransitive

   To vanish or pass out of existence; to be gone altogether.

   The strange glow departed as quickly as it had come.

   Old superstitions slowly depart as science spreads.

   Similarvanish, disappear, fade, dissipate, evaporate

   Oppositeappear, emerge, arise

7. 7
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To cause an aircraft to leave controlled flight; to lose control of it.

   A poorly timed input can depart the aircraft instantly.

   The instructor departed the trainer to demonstrate recovery.

   Note

   An aviation term that stretches the "deviate from" sense: what is left is controlled flight. It works both ways. The aircraft departs, or the pilot departs the aircraft, and the transitive use is the surprising one. A departure, typically from a stall, can lead to a spin in which normal control inputs no longer govern attitude. Envelope protection lets pilots fly at high angles of attack without that risk.

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