bid (someone or something) adieu

1. To say goodbye to someone or something. "Adieu" is a French valediction that literally means "to God." Unfortunately, I've got a train to catch, so I must bid you all adieu now. It was hard bidding college adieu, but I knew deep down that it was time to move on. A: "I can't believe your parents are selling the house." B: "I know, it's been really hard bidding my childhood home adieu."

2. To part with something, such as a possession. It's time for you to bid these ratty old t-shirts adieu. Bid your phone adieu, because I'm confiscating it. Come on, look at all this junk! We could bid most of it adieu at the yard sale.

bid adieu

Say goodbye, take leave of, as in It's beyond my bedtime, so I bid you all adieu, or I'll be glad to bid adieu to these crutches. French for "goodbye," adieu literally means "to God" and was part of à dieu vous commant, "I commend you to God." Adopted into English in the 1300s, it was first recorded in Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida (c. 1385). Today it is considered quite formal, although it also is used humorously.

bid adieu

Say good-bye. This formulaic farewell uses the French adieu, meaning “to God,” and has done so since Chaucer’s time. It is now considered rather formal, although it also is used humorously. In fact, humorist Charles Farrar Browne, under the pen name Artemus Ward, joked about it back in 1862: “I now bid you a welcome adoo” (Artemus Ward: His Book. The Shakers).