Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- interj. Used to express an acknowledgment of parting.
- n. An acknowledgment at parting, especially by saying "goodbye.”
- n. An act of parting or leave-taking: many sad goodbyes.
Wiktionary
- interj. farewell; a formula used to another person or persons when the speaker or writer or person addressed is departing.
- n. An utterance of goodbye, the wishing of farewell to someone.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a farewell remark
Etymologies
- From earlier Godby, Godby'e, Godbwye, God b'w'y, God bwy yee, God buy you, God be wi' you: each a progressively shorter contraction of God be with you, with change of God to good by confusion with good morning, good day, etc. (Wiktionary)
- Alteration (influenced by good day) of God be with you. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Drop points here, though, and the Frenchman can kiss the title goodbye on both cheeks.”
“The absence of a comma is intentional; the Gunners can kiss the title goodbye”
“In The Cherry Orchard, the goodbye is at first uncertain, but later definite, and for Lyuba, it is a terminal goodbye.”
“Refusing to use the word "goodbye", she released a new e-mail address, oprah@oprah.com to her fans so that they will stay in touch.”
Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph
“Ray's touching "goodbye" is a must-read, as is Mark's tribute at Toulouse St. Labels: ashley morris, oyster posted by oyster @ 12: 04 PM”
“The scene where they say goodbye is really touching.”
The Huffington Post: Samantha Zalaznick: Mad Men Finale Recap: Happily Ever After?
“We can stick with the old ways and watch as the rest of the world waves goodbye from a bullet train.”
The Huffington Post: Michael Brune: How to Say "Never Again"
“I agree ... saying goodbye is hard and I spend the last few days just wanting to hold GI Joe and he spends them wanting to quadruple check everything.”
“To me, goodbye is entirely more gut wrenching than the waiting.”
“I only know I dread goodbyes; my stomach even knots up the day before when I know a major goodbye is looming.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘goodbye’.
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FUN - Beatles song titles
Typical words from Beatles song titles. Can you recreate the titles?
(Grammatical words have been omitted)another, three, place, work, eyes, new, said, give, face, day, going, like and 388 more...
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Broken Hearts and Krazy Glue
The process of a finding your broken heart and gluing it back together.
goodbye, never, chance, change, new, tranformation, thoughts, peaceful, love, someone, consideration, afresh and 6 more...
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Tunie: Word Disassociation
(I'm fairly sure that I'm subverting the whole concept of the Tunie by listing this song. Subversion! Yes! HA HA HA HA! Mine is an evil laugh!!!)
Word Disassociation
antidisestablishm..., quickly, ruby, bionic, about, crouch, a cappella, imposter, flames, distraction, murderous, over and 181 more...
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Words I like as names
It's exactly what it sounds like. And yeah, for real people as much as characters. Big surprise.
corbeau, alameda, hanabi, milk, promise, edelweiss, delphinium, jubilate, jubilance, jocoserious, arrow, angeles and 141 more...
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Idk, I like these words.
ethereality, apathy, consideration, soul, safety, lone wolf, darkness, pressure, ocean, few, collapse, believe and 155 more...
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Theophilus North
Words from the novel by Thornton Wilder.
Theophilus, bicycle, Newport, cully, Persis, Hard-hearted Hannah, lazaret, jalopy, Gulliver, tennis, typewrite, breathings and 290 more...
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Theme Prompts
There's a fiction meme (mostly on Livejournal) where writers use words as a prompt for a short story snippet. I've been collecting the words that show up on these lists as prompts for creative writ...
white, black, gray, red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, violet, queen, king, prince and 407 more...
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Tunie: Kitty
Traditional; arranged by the Pogues, copyright 1984.
Oh Kitty, My Darling, remember
That the doom will be mine if I stay
'Tis far better to part, though it's hard to
...goodbye, god guard you, good night, cry, mountain, a stor, police, mo mhuirnín, lips, pale, kissed, softly and 4 more...
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all words I know
hello, goodbye, up, down, sweet, kind, yahoo, interesting, sardonic, dumb, greeting, silly and 29 more...
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Gabba Gabba Word: some Ramones words
blitzkrieg, pulsating, revved, beat, brat, punk, runt, wanna, boyfriend, chainsaw, massacre, sniff and 84 more...
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Tunie: Belong
by Great Big Sea.
Jenny said goodbye this afternoon
As far as I can tell
She can't bear the goodbye evenings
Or the morning-afters of farewell
She says "Here yo...care, last flower in th..., whispered, fear, won't be back, front door, path, beat, cousins, close, foreign coast, tide and 33 more...
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Common words, but seldom words in common
So it seems that the words I most want to use in other languages are the words which are least likely to be same between those languages.
here, now, eat, water, restroom, one, many, man, woman, right, left, help and 8 more...
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Identify the Wordie!! #2
SQUAAWWWKKKKK! Yes, you know what that means: The Buzzard has gone off and the competition is now closed. No more entries will be accepted.
THESE ARE THE RESULTS. ORIGINAL CONTEST RULE...gravlax, stripper, sunflower, groovin', yarb, chainsaw, inexorable, cavalier, bababadalgharaght..., hunky-dory, psychasthenic, goodbye and 14 more...
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My Words
just a compilation of words that I made.
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Say Goodbye!
Multilingual Farewells / Despedidas multi-idioma
Tweets
Looking for tweets for goodbye.
PossibleUnderscore I heard someone the other day say goodbye as: "Toodles and cheese!". I don't know about you, but I reckon that's a new one. Aug 2, 2009
dontcry ...Norma Jean Jul 29, 2008