parting of the ways

Idioms and Phrases

A point of divergence, especially an important one, as in When Jim decided to travel with the band and Jill wanted a more normal home life, they came to a parting of the ways . This term, which transfers a fork in a road to alternative courses of action, appears in the Bible (Ezekiel 21:21), where the king of Babylon must decide whether or not to attack Jerusalem: “[He] stood at the parting of the way.” [c. 1600]

Example Sentences

Tony Munday: "At some point, there was a hell of a lot of bricks and other things being thrown in our direction. My main concern was just to look down to the ground because I didn't want to be blinded. We were almost like skittles, completely defenceless… Not knowing what the strategy was of the people in charge, we're thinking 'Are we just cannon fodder?'… And then there was a parting of the ways, someone shouted out, and officers on horseback went through, followed by others with short shields."

From BBC

And in the transfer portal era, that kind of disconnect results in a parting of the ways.

From Los Angeles Times

“They were going to play out the string, and at the end of the year there would be a parting of the ways.”

From Seattle Times

In Moore's first game in charge following Town's second parting of the ways with Neil Warnock, it had for most of the evening looked as if another former Huddersfield manager would end up triumphant, Sky Blues boss Mark Robins.

From BBC

The prize came at a parting of the ways with his mentor Rutherford, as they differed about new equipment to advance their research.

From BBC

Related Words

• departure
• disengagement
• dissolution
• divorce
• estrangement
• partition
• segregation
• split