departed

Pluraldeparteds

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of depart.

   The ship departed from the harbor at dawn.

   Several flights departed late because of the storm.

   Note

   A regular past form, so one spelling covers both the simple past (the ship departed) and the participle after have or had (the ship had departed). The verb works two ways. Intransitively it usually takes from (departed from the harbor). Transitively the place is the direct object (departed the harbor). With from it can also mean deviating, as when a plan departed from its original design.

2. 2
   adjectiveeuphemistic

   Dead; used as a gentle, respectful term for a person who has died.

   The memorial service honored their departed colleagues.

   She kept a photograph of her departed parents on the mantel.

   Similardeceased, late, dead, lost

   Oppositeliving

   Note

   A softening that comes straight from the verb, whose euphemistic sense is "to die": the dead are spoken of as having gone away. It sits most naturally before a noun, often after a possessive, as in our departed friend or her departed parents. It belongs to eulogy, obituary and condolence. Outside those settings it can sound stiff or evasive, and dead is the plain word.

3. 3
   nouneuphemistic

   Those who have died, referred to collectively and with respect.

   The service was held in memory of the departed.

   On that day, families lay flowers for the departed at the cemetery.

   Similardead

   Oppositeliving

   Note

   The adjective turned noun with the. Like the dead, it names people collectively and carries the same softening as the gentle adjective. Its respectful use is old: George Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie (1589) praises preachers for "saying well of the departed." A plural, departeds, exists, though the departed already covers a group without one.

4. 4
   adjective

   Having gone away; no longer present in a place.

   The departed delegation had already boarded their flight.

   Smoke from the departed steamship still hung over the dock.

   Note

   Used of eras and glories as readily as of people. A departed era is one that has passed out of existence, echoing the verb's figurative sense of vanishing. With people, take care: the gentle word for "dead" shares the spelling, so "our departed guests" can sound like a bereavement. Gone, or who had left, avoids the ambiguity.

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