Verb

(ambitransitive) To start, to initiate or take the first step into something.

* (John Locke) (1632-1705)

The apostle begins our knowledge in the creatures, which leads us to the knowledge of God.

* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the song.

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.}}

* , chapter=5

, title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=Of all the queer collections of humans outside of a crazy asylum, it seemed to me this sanitarium was the cup winner. […] When you're well enough off so's you don't have to fret about anything but your heft or your diseases you begin to get queer, I suppose.}}

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-29, volume=407, issue=8842, page=29, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Unspontaneous combustion , passage=Since the mid-1980s, when Indonesia first began to clear its bountiful forests on an industrial scale in favour of lucrative palm-oil plantations, “haze” has become an almost annual occurrence in South-East Asia.}}

To commence existence.

* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)

Vast chain of being! which from God began .

Verb

(en verb)

To leave.

*Shakespeare

*:He which hath no stomach to this fight, / Let him depart .

*2009 , George Monbiot, The Guardian , 7 September:

*:The government maintains that if its regulations are too stiff, British bankers will leave the country. It's true that they have been threatening to depart in droves, but the obvious answer is: "Sod off then."

To set out on a journey.

*:

*:And soo she receyued hym vpon suffysaunt seurte / so alle her hurtes were wel restored of al that she coude complayne / and thenne he departed vnto the Courte of kyne Arthur / and there openly the reed knyghte of the reed laundes putte hym in the mercy of syre Launcelot and syr Gawayne

To die.

*Bible, Luke ii. 29:

*:Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.

To deviate (from).

:His latest statements seemed to depart from party policy somewhat.

:to depart from a title or defence in legal pleading

*Madison

*:if the plan of the convention be found to depart from republican principles

To go away from; to leave.

*Bible, 1 Sam. iv. 2:

*:The glory is departed from Israel.

*2009 , The Guardian , Sport Blog, 9 September:

*:The build-up to Saturday's visit of Macedonia and this encounter with the Dutch could be construed as odd in the sense that there seemed a basic acceptance, inevitability even, that Burley would depart office in their immediate aftermath.

(obsolete) To divide up; to distribute, share.

*:

*:and so all the worlde seythe that betwyxte three knyghtes is departed clerely knyghthode, that is Sir Launcelot du Lake, Sir Trystrams de Lyones and Sir Lamerok de Galys—thes bere now the renowne.

(obsolete) To separate, part.

*:

Syr knyght[,] said the two squyers that were with her[,] yonder are two knyghtes that fyghte for thys lady, goo thyder and departe them.

:(Shakespeare)