parter

plural parters

1. in compoundsinformalA work in a specified number of parts.

   The show was a two-parter, but we stopped watching halfway through.

plural parters

1. rareThat which parts, or draws apart.

   When you run out of original ideas in Hollywood, you call in the makers of thunder and lightning and, if the film is biblical, the parters of the Red Sea and the choirs of heavenly angels humming to the strings of Mantovani.

   1993, Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies Charles Warren, Anne-Marie Mieville, Jean-Luc Godard's Hail Mary: Women and the Sacred in Film, SIU Press, page 78

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   Lateral parting of the hair is customary, while the pompadour and middle parting is a relatively unusual deviation, an oddity. This makes those who practice it conspicuous. It happening that the middle parters are mostly foppish the stigma of foppishness usually goes with the practice even when it is not merited.

   1901, Medical Council, volume 6, page 425

2. archaicslangOne who readily parts with money; a free spender.

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   Of course, if you do not follow our national poet's recommendation, and unless you are a good parter as well, you cannot expect to fill your stables with first-class animals, as you will ascertain from Mr. Cox or Messrs. Blackman that they do not find them without difficulty, or without paying a good round sum for every clinker they add to their stud.

   1879, Frederick Feild Whitehurst, Hark Away: Sketches of Hunting, Coaching, Fishing, Etc., Etc, page 188