What does "parting" mean?

Additional senses

1. 2.Departing. "Speed the parting guest." Pope.
2. 3.Admitting of being parted; partible. Parting fellow, a partner. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- Parting pulley. See under Pulley. -- Parting sand (Founding), dry, nonadhesive sand, sprinkled upon the partings of a mold to facilitate the separation. -- Parting strip (Arch.), in a sash window, one of the thin strips of wood let into the pulley stile to keep the sashes apart; also, the thin piece inserted in the window box to separate the weights. -- Parting tool (Mach.), a thin tool, used in turning or planing, for cutting a piece in two.
3. 4.The act of parting or dividing; the state of being parted; division; separation. "The parting of the way." Ezek. xxi.
4. 5.2. A separation; a leave-taking. Shak. And there were sudden partings, such as press The life from out young hearts. Byron.
5. 6.A surface or line of separation where a division occurs.
6. 7.(Founding) The surface of the sand of one section of a mold where it meets that of another section.
7. 8.(Chem.) The separation and determination of alloys; esp., the separation, as by acids, of gold from silver in the assay button.
8. 9.(Geol.) A joint or fissure, as in a coal seam.
9. 10.(Naut.) The breaking, as of a cable, by violence.
10. 11.(Min.) Lamellar separation in a crystallized mineral, due to some other cause than cleavage, as to the presence of twinning lamellæ.