Advertisement

cease (v.)

c. 1300, cesen, "to stop moving, acting, or speaking; come to an end," from Old French cesser "to come to an end, stop, cease; give up, desist," from Latin cessare "to cease, go slow, give over, leave off, be idle," frequentative of cedere (past participle cessus) "go away, withdraw, yield" (from PIE root *ked- "to go, yield"). Transitive sense "put a stop to," now rare, is from late 14c. Related: Ceased; ceasing. Old English in this sense had geswican, blinnan.

cease (n.)

"cessation, stopping" (archaic), c. 1300, from cease (n.) or else from Old French cesse "cease, cessation," from cesser.

Others are reading

Advertisement
Definitions of cease from WordNet
1
cease (v.)
put an end to a state or an activity;
Synonyms: discontinue / stop / give up / quit / lay off
cease (v.)
have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical;
Synonyms: end / stop / finish / terminate
2
cease (n.)
(`cease' is a noun only in the phrase `without cease') end;
From wordnet.princeton.edu

Dictionary entries near cease

CB

cc

CD

CDC

CD-ROM

cease

cease-fire

ceaseless

Cecil

Cecilia

cecum