cease
See also: Cease
English
Etymology
From Middle English cesen, cessen, from Middle French cesser (“to cease”), from Latin cessō (“leave off”), frequentative of cēdō (“to leave off, go away”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /siːs/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -iːs
Verb
cease (third-person singular simple present ceases, present participle ceasing, simple past and past participle ceased)
- (formal, intransitive) To stop.
- Synonyms: discontinue, hold, terminate; see also Thesaurus:end, Thesaurus:stop
- And with that, his twitching ceased.
- (formal, transitive) To stop doing (something).
- Synonyms: arrest, discontinue; see also Thesaurus:desist
- And with that, he ceased twitching.
- (obsolete, intransitive) To be wanting; to fail; to pass away, perish.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 15:11:
- The poor shall never cease out of the land.
- 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 159-161:
- [...] wherefore ceaſe we then? / Say they who counſel Warr, we are decreed, / Reſerv'd and deſtin'd to Eternal woe;
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXXIV, page 53:
- ’Twere best at once to sink to peace,
Like birds the charming serpent draws,
To drop head-foremost in the jaws
Of vacant darkness and to cease.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
intransitive
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transitive
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Noun
cease
- (obsolete) Cessation; extinction (see without cease).
- c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:
- the cease of majesty
Anagrams
Galician
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