to say goodbye
562
1.0
- phrasal verb
- /seɪ ɡʊdˈbaɪ/
:
despedirse
- There's nothing left to do but to say goodbye and try to move on.
- say goodbye to loved ones
- say goodbye to the family
- say goodbye then
Anyways, I would say goodbye, but you'll be back.
- Anyways, I would say goodbye, but you'll be back.
- But they're kind of saying maybe they think they're saying goodbye to us forever.
- It's going to be soon enough for me to say goodbye, so don't touch me.
- And I know it's tough because it's hard to say goodbye to anything, right?
- But yeah, I'm, I'm so sad to say goodbye to this little area.
- You should never greet someone casually or say goodbye to someone casually.
- It's time to say goodbye to those kinds of things, please.
- She ties up a couple loose ends, says goodbye to Sebastian.
Examples
-
You left without saying goodbye.
-
I just came to say goodbye.
-
And I know it's tough because it's hard to say goodbye to anything, right?
-
It's time for us to say goodbye, Honey.
-
Often, family and friends are present to say goodbye to the dying person.
Academic text (2002) -
I thought I'd go home for a few days to say goodbye to my mother.
Fiction book (1990) -
But for now, we say goodbye to Sir Edward Hyde.
-
It is time for me to say goodbye to this space.
-
As the party draws to a close, I reluctantly say goodbye to my new friends.
Academic text (2005) -
As the party draws to a close, I reluctantly say goodbye to my new friends.
Synonyms
19
1.3
Move your hand back and forth to show you are saying goodbye
12
3.8
To tell someone goodbye before you leave, often in a formal or sad way
5
3.9
Say goodbye to people and go away from a place politely
1
7.7
To say goodbye and leave politely
To say goodbye to someone in a friendly, informal way
Antonyms
How Emotional
- Informal
2
5.0
- Formal
12
3.8
562
1.0
19
1.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to bid farewell' is directly and transparently derivable from combining 'say' (to speak) with 'goodbye' (a farewell word); a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the MWE's meaning. This is a straightforward verb + noun compositional pattern common across languages and frequent in English, so it is immediately comprehensible.
Etymology
Say goodbye comes from the old habit to say a short wish when people left. One popular story says the word goodbye grew from the phrase 'God be with you', a wish for safety, so say goodbye now means 'to express good wishes when you leave'.