desist

From Middle French desister.

• IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɪst/, /dɪˈzɪst/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪst

desist (third-person singular simple present desists, present participle desisting, simple past and past participle desisted)

1. (transitive, intransitive, formal) To cease to proceed or act; to stop (often with from).

   Please desist from telephoning me at this number.

   • 1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter I, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1 (The Wild):

     One Ear was uttering quick, eager whines, lunging at the length of his stick toward the darkness, and desisting now and again in order to make frantic attacks on the stick with his teeth.

   • 1921, Annual Report of the Federal Trade Commission, page 173:

     After hearing[,] an order was entered requiring respondent to cease and desist the practice complained of under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission act.

   • 2005, Gerry Shishin Wick, The Book of Equanimity: Illuminating Classic Zen Koans, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 307:

     Desist the kind of thinking that gets you into trouble. Thinking is in itself fine, but grabbing onto thoughts and images of your self will bring you suffering. Once you learn how to desist, how to let go of your ego-grasping mind, then cease thinking ...

• cease and desist

• Deists, deists, deïsts, sisted