də̇ˈpärchər, dēˈ-, -pȧchə(r noun
( -s )
Etymology: depart (I) + -ure
1. obsolete : division , separation
2.
a. : removal from a place : the act of going away
postpone departure of its troops from Italy — Collier's Year Book
b.
(1) : a setting out (as on a journey or a course of action or thought)
anticipate his departure for England
we need a fairly definite point of departure for intelligent discourse — Robert Humphrey
(2) : a beginning of a new course of thought or action
the purchase by the state of property for purely esthetic purposes was a new departure — American Guide Series: New York
c. : a ship's position in latitude and longitude at the beginning of a voyage as a point from which to begin dead reckoning usually ascertained by taking cross bearings of landmarks
3. archaic : removal from life : death
the time of my departure has come — 2 Tim 4:6 (Revised Standard Version)
4. : the distance due east or west made by a ship in its course reckoned in plane sailing as the product of the distance sailed and the sine of the angle made by the course with the meridian — compare dead reckoning
5.
a. : deviation or divergence especially from a rule, course of action, plan, or purpose
a departure from official procedure
also : something that has deviated or diverged
in nature most departures from normal cannot survive long — W.F.Hollander
b. law : the desertion by a party to any pleading of the ground taken by him in his last antecedent pleading and the adoption of another
6. surveying : the projection on the east-west axis of a course in a plane survey, being equal to the length of the course multiplied by the sine of its bearing