01 n. Division; separation; putting away.
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1.
Division; separation; putting away.[Obs.]“No other remedy . . . but absolute departure.” — Milton.
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2.
Separation or removal from a place; the act or process of departing or going away.“Departure from this happy place.” — Milton.
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3.
Removal from the present life; death; decease.“The time of my departure is at hand.” — 2 Tim. iv. 6.“His timely departure . . . barred him from the knowledge of his son's miseries.” — Sir P. Sidney.
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4.
Deviation or abandonment, as from or of a rule or course of action, a plan, or a purpose.“Any departure from a national standard.” — Prescott.
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5.
The desertion by a party to any pleading of the ground taken by him in his last antecedent pleading, and the adoption of another.(Law)
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6.
The distance due east or west which a person or ship passes over in going along an oblique line.(Nav. & Surv.)
Phrases & compounds
To take a departure —
to ascertain, usually by taking bearings from a landmark, the position of a vessel at the beginning of a voyage as a point from which to begin her dead reckoning; as, the ship took her departure from Sandy Hook.