cease

From Middle English cesen, cessen, from Middle French cesser (“to cease”), from Latin cessō (“leave off”), frequentative of cēdō (“to leave off, go away”). Compare secede.

• IPA^(key): /siːs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːs

cease (third-person singular simple present ceases, present participle ceasing, simple past and past participle ceased)

1. (formal, intransitive) To stop.

   Synonyms: discontinue, hold, terminate; see also Thesaurus:end, Thesaurus:stop

   And with that, his twitching ceased.

2. (formal, transitive) To stop doing (something).

   Synonyms: arrest, discontinue; see also Thesaurus:desist

   And with that, he ceased twitching.

3. (obsolete, intransitive) To be wanting; to fail; to pass away, perish.

   Synonyms: desert, lack

   • 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], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →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.

• • cede
  • cessation
  • secede

   

cease

1. (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

• escae

cease

1. first/third-person singular imperfect subjunctive of cear