LEAVE-TAKING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does leave-taking mean? 

• LEAVE-TAKING (noun)
  The noun LEAVE-TAKING has 1 sense:

1. the act of departing politely

  Familiarity information: LEAVE-TAKING used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LEAVE-TAKING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of departing politely

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

farewell; leave; leave-taking; parting

Context example:

parting is such sweet sorrow

Hypernyms ("leave-taking" is a kind of...):

departure; going; going away; leaving (the act of departing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "leave-taking"):

valediction (the act of saying farewell)

 Context examples 

He sat really lost in thought for the first few minutes; and when rousing himself, it was only to say, Of all horrid things, leave-taking is the worst.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

As for myself, I am glad to have got the bustling days of preparation and the pangs of leave-taking behind me, and I have no doubt that I show it in my bearing.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As he was to begin his journey too early on the morrow to see any of the family, the ceremony of leave-taking was performed when the ladies moved for the night; and Mrs. Bennet, with great politeness and cordiality, said how happy they should be to see him at Longbourn again, whenever his engagements might allow him to visit them.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

By all their calculations there was just time for this; but as they drew near the Cobb, there was such a general wish to walk along it once more, all were so inclined, and Louisa soon grew so determined, that the difference of a quarter of an hour, it was found, would be no difference at all; so with all the kind leave-taking, and all the kind interchange of invitations and promises which may be imagined, they parted from Captain and Mrs Harville at their own door, and still accompanied by Captain Benwick, who seemed to cling to them to the last, proceeded to make the proper adieus to the Cobb.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Her name was not mentioned;—and there was so striking a change in all this, and such an ill-judged solemnity of leave-taking in his graceful acknowledgments, as she thought, at first, could not escape her father's suspicion.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)