to farewell
- verb
- /fɛrˈwɛl/
- Formal
- And you, my friends, farewell, a short farewell.
- bade them farewell
- bid you farewell
Examples
-
But I am going to go to bed now, so I bid you farewell and goodnight.
-
All too soon, they must bid farewell to their friends and family.
-
Anyway, we're going to bid you farewell and we are going to go to sleep.
-
I could not leave without bidding you farewell.
-
Now I must bid you farewell, because you have lost all credibility with me.
Blog text (23) -
Ladies and gentlemen, as your captain, about to bid you farewell, let me say: I am sympathetic with your plight.
Fiction book (1990) -
We bid farewell among ash, green pine, and Cypress, then return home.
-
Teresa bade them farewell regretfully.
Fiction book (1990) -
As they revved up their engines and began to maneuver out of the field, the people called out to them and bade them farewell, "Goodnight, see you tomorrow."
Academic text (2006) -
During the ceremony, we all gathered to farewell our colleague with warm wishes for her future.
Synonyms
To tell someone you are leaving and wish them well
Move your hand back and forth to show you are saying goodbye
To tell someone goodbye before you leave, often in a formal or sad way
Say goodbye to people and go away from a place politely
Antonyms
Phrasal Verbs
- Formal
To tell someone goodbye before you leave, often in a formal or sad way
Compounds
How Formal
- Formal
Surface Forms
Etymology
To farewell someone comes from the same old English phrase fare + well, with fare meaning 'go' and well meaning 'good', so to farewell is to wish someone 'go well' — in other words, to say goodbye in a formal or special way.