cease

/sis/

/sis/

Other forms: ceased; ceases; ceasing

To cease is to stop or end. Your gym teacher may have trained the class so well that all chattering will cease every time she blows her whistle.

Cease comes from the Old French cesser, which means "come to an end," "go away," "give up," or "yield." Although cease often appears in the past tense with "-ed," cease is common for talking about things as they come to an end. A dead plant has ceased living, and if you cease watering the rest of the plants, they will cease to exist too.

Definitions of cease

1. verb

   put an end to a state or an activity
   synonyms: discontinue, give up, lay off, quit, stop

   types:

   drop, knock off

   stop pursuing or acting

   leave off

   stop using

   sign off

   cease broadcasting; get off the air; as of radio stations

   retire, withdraw

   withdraw from active participation

   pull the plug

   prevent from happening or continuing

   close off, shut off

   stem the flow of

   cheese

   used in the imperative (get away, or stop it)

   call it a day, call it quits

   stop doing what one is doing

   break

   give up

   nol.pros., nolle pros, nolle prosequi

   drop prosecution of by entering a nolle prosequi in the court records

   drop out

   withdraw from established society, especially because of disillusion with conventional values
2. verb

   have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
   synonyms: end, finish, stop, terminate

   types:

   pass away

   go out of existence

   lapse

   end, at least for a long time

   cut out

   cease operating

   go out

   become extinguished

   adjourn, break up, recess

   close at the end of a session

   disappear, vanish

   cease to exist

   climax, culminate

   end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage

   run out

   become used up; be exhausted

   go, run low, run short

   to be spent or finished

   disappear, go away, vanish

   become invisible or unnoticeable

   close, conclude

   come to a close

   come out, turn out

   result or end

   discontinue

   come to or be at an end

   break

   come to an end

   dematerialise, dematerialize

   become immaterial; disappear

   crown, top

   be the culminating event

   clear, dissipate

   go away or disappear

   bob under

   disappear suddenly, as if under the surface of a body of water

   eventuate

   come out in the end

   work out

   happen in a certain way, leading to, producing, or resulting in a certain outcome, often well

   fizzle, fizzle out, peter out, taper off

   end weakly

   leave off

   come to an end, stop or cease

   expire, run out

   lose validity
3. noun

   (`cease' is a noun only in the phrase `without cease') end
   type of:

   end, ending

   the point in time at which something ends