parting

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The act or process of separating or dividing.
• noun The state of being separated or divided.
• noun A departure or leave-taking.
• adjective Given, received, or done on departing or separating.
• idiom (parting of the ways) A point of divergence, especially one of great moment.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of separating Or dividing; separation.
• noun Agoing hence; death: sometimes hence-parting.
• noun In paper-making, the operation of separating the damp sheets.
• noun In metallurgy, the separation of gold and silver from each other by means of an acid. Both nitric and sulphuric acids are used for this purpose, the latter more generally; but parting by nitric acid is a process which has been in use for many centuries.
• noun In mineralogy, a separation of a mineral into layers due not to cleavage, but to some other cause, as the presence of thin lamellæ formed by twinning, as, for example, in pyroxene, titanite, etc.
• noun In comb-making, a method by which, in order to save material, two combs are cut from a single piece of shell but little wider than a single comb. The cutter used has a vertical motion upon the blank, which has an intermittent feed beneath it, and receives a succession of cuts, the teeth of one comb being cut from the interdental spaces of the other.
• noun A point or place of separation or division.
• noun In geology, a thin seam of clay or shale separating the thicker beds of rock.
• noun In founding: The meeting surfaces of the sand rammed up in the cope and in the drag. Parting-sand.
• noun The division of the hair on the head in dressing it.
• noun That which parts or divides.
• noun Share; fellowship; participation.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• adjective Serving to part; dividing; separating.
• adjective Given when departing
• adjective Departing.
• adjective Admitting of being parted; partible.
• adjective [Obs.] a partner.
• adjective See under Pulley.
• adjective (Founding) dry, nonadhesive sand, sprinkled upon the partings of a mold to facilitate the separation.
• adjective (Arch.) in a sash window, one of the thin strips of wood let into the pulley stile to keep the sashes apart; also, the thin piece inserted in the window box to separate the weights.
• adjective (Mach.) a thin tool, used in turning or planing, for cutting a piece in two.
• noun The act of parting or dividing; the state of being parted; division; separation.
• noun A separation; a leave-taking.
• noun A surface or line of separation where a division occurs.
• noun (Founding) The surface of the sand of one section of a mold where it meets that of another section.
• noun (Chem.) The separation and determination of alloys; esp., the separation, as by acids, of gold from silver in the assay button.
• noun (Geol.) A joint or fissure, as in a coal seam.
• noun (Naut.) The breaking, as of a cable, by violence.
• noun (Min.) Lamellar separation in a crystallized mineral, due to some other cause than cleavage, as to the presence of twinning lamellæ.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The act of parting or dividing; the state of being parted; division; separation.
• noun A farewell, the act of departing politely.
• noun UK The dividing line formed by combing the hair in different directions; part (US)
• noun founding The surface of the sand of one section of a mould where it meets that of another section.
• noun chemistry The separation and determination of alloys; especially, the separation, as by acids, of gold from silver in the assay button.
• noun geology A joint or fissure, as in a coal seam.
• noun nautical The breaking, as of a cable, by violence.
• noun mineralogy Lamellar separation in a crystallized mineral, due to some other cause than cleavage, as to the presence of twinning lamellae.
• verb Present participle of part.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun a line of scalp that can be seen when sections of hair are combed in opposite directions
• noun the act of departing politely