cease

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To stop.

   And with that, his twitching ceased.

2. 2
   verb

   To stop doing (something).

   And with that, he ceased twitching.

3. 3
   verb

   To be wanting; to fail; to pass away, perish.

   The poor shall never cease out of the land.

4. 4
   noun

   Cessation; extinction (see without cease).

   the cease of majesty

5. 5
   noun

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

6. 6
   verb

   to have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense

7. 7
   verb

   to put an end to a state or an activity

8. 8
   name

   A surname from German.

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”). Compare secede.