• Part

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /pɑːt/
    • US IPA: /pɑɹt/
    • Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)t

    Origin

    From Middle English part, from Old English part ("part") and Old French part ("part"); both from Latin partem, accusative of pars ("piece, portion, share, side, party, faction, role, character, lot, fate, task, lesson, part, member"), from Proto-Indo-European *par-, *per- ("to cut, bore"). Akin to portio ("a portion, part"), parare ("to make ready, prepare"). Displaced Middle English del, dele ("part") (from Old English dǣl ("part, distribution")), Middle English dale ("part, portion") (from Old English dāl ("portion")), Middle English sliver ("part, portion") (from Middle English sliven ("to cut, cleave"), from Old English (tō)slīfan ("to split")).

    Full definition of part

    Noun

    part

    (plural parts)
    1. A portion; a component.
      1. A fraction of a whole. part
        Gaul is divided into three parts.
        • Schuster Hepaticae V|viiHepaticology, outside the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere, still lies deep in the shadow cast by that ultimate "closet taxonomist," Franz Stephani—a ghost whose shadow falls over us all.
        • 2013-06-01, Towards the end of poverty, America’s poverty line is $63 a day for a family of four. In the richer parts of the emerging world $4 a day is the poverty barrier. But poverty’s scourge is fiercest below $1.25 (…): people below that level live lives that are poor, nasty, brutish and short.
      2. A distinct element.
        The parts of a chainsaw include the chain, engine, and handle.
        • 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 8, It had been arranged as part of the day's programme that Mr. Cooke was to drive those who wished to go over the Rise in his new brake.
        • 2012-12-01, An internet of airborne things, A farmer could place an order for a new tractor part by text message and pay for it by mobile money-transfer. A supplier many miles away would then take the part to the local matternet station for airborne dispatch via drone.
      3. A group inside a larger group. part
      4. Share, especially of a profit.
        I want my part of the bounty.
      5. A unit of relative proportion in a mixture.
        The mixture comprises one part sodium hydroxide and ten parts water.
      6. 3.5 centiliters of one ingredient in a mixed drink.
      7. A section of a document.
        Please turn to Part I, Chapter 2.
      8. A section of land; an area of a country or other territory; region.
      9. (math, dated) A factor.
        3 is a part of 12.
      10. Duty; responsibility.
        to do one’s part
        1. Position or role (especially in a play).
          We all have a part to play.
          • 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 2, We drove back to the office with some concern on my part at the prospect of so large a case. Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist, and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
          • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 5, He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, …, the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.
        2. (music) The melody played or sung by a particular instrument, voice, or group of instruments or voices, within a polyphonic piece.
          The first violin part in this concerto is very challenging.
        3. Each of two contrasting sides of an argument, debate etc.; "hand".
          • 1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.15:the fruition of life cannot perfectly be pleasing unto us, if we stand in any feare to lose it. A man might nevertheless say on the contrary part, that we embrace and claspe this good so much the harder, and with more affection, as we perceive it to be less sure, and feare it should be taken from us.
          • Bible, Mark ix. 40He that is not against us is on our part.
          • Edmund Waller (1606-1687)Make whole kingdoms take her brother's part.
      11. (US) The dividing line formed by combing the hair in different directions. part
        The part of his hair was slightly to the left.
      12. (Judaism) In the Hebrew lunisolar calendar, a unit of time equivalent to 3â…“ seconds. part
      13. A constituent of character or capacity; quality; faculty; talent; usually in the plural with a collective sense.
        • Edmund Burke (1729-1797)men of considerable parts
        • Thomas Macaulay (1800-1859)great quickness of parts
        • William Shakespeare (1564-1616)...which maintained so politic a state of evil, that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them.

    Synonyms

    Holonyms

    Derived terms

    Related terms

    Verb

    1. (intransitive) To leave.
      • ShakespeareHe wrung Bassanio's hand, and so they parted.
      • A. TrollopeIt was strange to him that a father should feel no tenderness at parting with an only son.
      • George Eliothis precious bag, which he would by no means part from
    2. To cut hair with a parting; shed.
    3. (transitive) To divide in two.to part the curtains
      • 1884, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter VIII run the canoe into a deep dent in the bank that I knowed about; I had to part the willow branches to get in; and when I made fast nobody could a seen the canoe from the outside.
    4. (intransitive) To be divided in two or separated; shed.A rope parts.His hair parts in the middle.
    5. (transitive, now rare) To divide up; to share.
      • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Luke III:He that hath ij. cootes, lett hym parte with hym that hath none: And he that hath meate, let him do lyke wyse.
      • Bible, John xix. 24They parted my raiment among them.
      • Alexander Popeto part his throne, and share his heaven with thee
      • Spenser Faerie Queene, II.x:He left three sonnes, his famous progeny,
        Borne of faire Inogene of Italy;
        Mongst whom he parted his imperiall state ...
    6. (obsolete) To have a part or share; to partake.
      • Bible, 1 Sam. xxx. 24They shall part alike.
    7. To separate or disunite; to remove from contact or contiguity; to sunder.
      • Bible, Luke xxiv. 51While he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
      • ShakespeareThe narrow seas that part
        The French and English.
    8. (obsolete) To hold apart; to stand or intervene between.
      • ShakespeareThe stumbling night did part our weary powers.
    9. To separate by a process of extraction, elimination, or secretion.to part gold from silver
      • PriorThe liver minds his own affair, ...
        And parts and strains the vital juices.
    10. To leave; to quit.
      • Shakespearesince presently your souls must part your bodies
    11. (transitive, internet) To leave (an IRC channel).
      • 2000, "Phantom", Re: Uhm.. hi... I guess... (on newsgroup alt.support.boy-lovers)He parted the channel saying "SHUTUP!"... so I queried him, asking if there was something I could do.. maybe talk... so we did... since then, I've been seeing him on IRC every day (really can't imagine him not being on IRC anymore actually).

    Derived terms

    Adjective

    part

    1. Fractional; partial.Fred was part owner of the car.

    Adverb

    part

    1. Partly; partially; fractionally.
      Part finished

    Derived terms

    Anagrams

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