Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- interj. Used to express goodbye.
- n. An acknowledgment at parting; a goodbye.
- n. The act of departing or taking leave.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- ‘Fare well’; may you be or continue in a happy or prosperous condition; in common use, good-by. It expresses a kind wish, a wish of happiness, and while it does not, in its origin, necessarily refer to departure, it is now used, like
good-by , its more colloquial equivalent, exclusively in leave-taking. It is sometimes used in reference to inanimate objects, in slight personification. It emphasizes the fact of separation or relinquishment. - [It is still often written separately, with a pronoun between, the pronoun being either the subject nominative, as in “fare you well” or “fare ye well,” or a dative of reference, as in “fare thee well.”
- Synonyms Good-by, etc. See adieu, interj.
- n. A good-by; a leave-taking; an adieu.
- n. Farewell followed by to governing the object is a noun, used elliptically for “I bid farewell (to …).”
- n. Leave; departure; final look, thought, or attention.
- Parting; valedictory: as, a farewell sermon; farewell appearance of an actor.
- To bid farewell to; take leave of.
Wiktionary
- n. A wish of happiness or welfare at parting, especially a permanent departure; the parting compliment; a goodbye; adieu.
- n. An act of departure; leave-taking; a last look at, or reference to something.
- adj. parting; valedictory; final;
- interj. goodbye
- v. To bid farewell or say goodbye
GNU Webster's 1913
- interj. Go well; good-by; adieu; -- originally applied to a person departing, but by custom now applied both to those who depart and those who remain. It is often separated by the pronoun; ; and is sometimes used as an expression of separation only
- n. A wish of happiness or welfare at parting; the parting compliment; a good-by; adieu.
- n. Act of departure; leave-taking; a last look at, or reference to something.
- adj. Parting; valedictory; final.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the act of departing politely
- n. an acknowledgment or expression of goodwill at parting
Etymologies
- Middle English fare wel : imperative of faren, to fare; see fare + wel, well; see well2.
Examples
“President Jimmy Carter did it in his farewell address a speech he concluded with the word farewell, which is the proper way to end a farewell address.”
“Mladic attorney Milos Saljic visited him in his jail cell in the early afternoon and said the former general was crying and very emotional during what he called a farewell visit by his wife and sister.”
“Their relationship culminates with a very revealing poem that aptly begins with the word farewell.”
“It was on the 28th of September, 1880, that several of my friends and relatives had gathered in the parlor to have what they called a farewell chat with me while I was yet their girl companion.”
“He has been publicly girding for his incarceration with a series of goodbyes, including what he called a farewell tour in recent months and a recent Rolling Stone cover story in which he said he considered jail "an experience that I need to have if God's putting me through it.”
“Then they waved their hands in farewell and went away slowly across the campus toward the burning city.”
“There was nothing to be done, so they went down and said good-bye to the little old man, who waved farewell from the promenade deck as the big steamer poked her nose seaward through the coral reef.”
“Gregory Clark makes the case in farewell to alms, that Malthus was right, and all preindustrial states lived under malthusian trap.”
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » The Narrow-Mindedness of Zero-Sum Thinking
“Domar, his eyes fastened on the peaks, said nothing either, did not so much as nod in farewell or thanks, so focused had his thoughts become.”
“Bub waved his hand in farewell, and his mates clustered along the rail as they answered with a cheering shout.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘farewell’.
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bad memory
copper, anvil, oblique, thrust, shrine, welfare, farewell, bitter, faction, sectarian, tangible, spectacle and 132 more...
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Nom de Guerre Finder
You've taken all the other quizzes--you've already used the name of your first pet and you're tired of having to use the name of the first street where you lived. Now it's time to find your excitin...
odyssey, dawn, desert, storm, noble, eagle, shield, freedom, enduring, swift, sharp, edge and 50 more...
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Well
well, wells, swells, hot-well, well-being, wellborn, wellaway, wellness, Ida Bell Wells, H.G. Wells, Henry Wells, that's all well a... and 54 more...

PossibleUnderscore The saddest goodbye song is one of the most simple (of course, that's just my opinion).
Dec 9, 2009
baihu goodbye for ever! Sep 28, 2007