cease

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cease

(sēs)

v. ceased, ceas·ing, ceas·es

v.tr.

To put an end to; discontinue: The factory ceased production. See Synonyms at stop.

v.intr.

1. To come to an end; stop: a process that never ceases.

2. To stop performing an activity or action; desist: "fold our wings, / And cease from wanderings" (Tennyson).

Cessation; ceasing: We worked without cease to get the project finished on time.

[Middle English cesen, from Old French cesser, from Latin cessāre, to stop, frequentative of cēdere, to yield; see ked- in Indo-European roots.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cease

(siːs)

(when: tr, may take a gerund or an infinitive as object) to bring or come to an end; desist from; stop

without cease without stopping; incessantly

[C14: from Old French cesser, from Latin cessāre, frequentative of cēdere to yield, cede]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

cease

(sis)

v. ceased, ceas•ing,
n. v.i.

1. to stop; discontinue.

2. to come to an end.

3. Obs. to pass away; die out.

v.t.

4. to put a stop or end to; halt: to cease hostilities.

5. cessation: The noise continued without cease.

[1250–1300; Middle English ces(s)en < Old French cesser < Latin cessāre to hold back, desist, frequentative of cēdere to withdraw, cede]

cease

, cede - Cease and cede come from Latin cedere, "go away, withdraw."

cease

Past participle: ceased
Gerund: ceasing

Imperative
cease
cease

Present
I cease
you cease
he/she/it ceases
we cease
you cease
they cease

Preterite
I ceased
you ceased
he/she/it ceased
we ceased
you ceased
they ceased

Present Continuous
I am ceasing
you are ceasing
he/she/it is ceasing
we are ceasing
you are ceasing
they are ceasing

Present Perfect
I have ceased
you have ceased
he/she/it has ceased
we have ceased
you have ceased
they have ceased

Past Continuous
I was ceasing
you were ceasing
he/she/it was ceasing
we were ceasing
you were ceasing
they were ceasing

Past Perfect
I had ceased
you had ceased
he/she/it had ceased
we had ceased
you had ceased
they had ceased

Future
I will cease
you will cease
he/she/it will cease
we will cease
you will cease
they will cease

Future Perfect
I will have ceased
you will have ceased
he/she/it will have ceased
we will have ceased
you will have ceased
they will have ceased

Future Continuous
I will be ceasing
you will be ceasing
he/she/it will be ceasing
we will be ceasing
you will be ceasing
they will be ceasing

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been ceasing
you have been ceasing
he/she/it has been ceasing
we have been ceasing
you have been ceasing
they have been ceasing

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been ceasing
you will have been ceasing
he/she/it will have been ceasing
we will have been ceasing
you will have been ceasing
they will have been ceasing

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been ceasing
you had been ceasing
he/she/it had been ceasing
we had been ceasing
you had been ceasing
they had been ceasing

Conditional
I would cease
you would cease
he/she/it would cease
we would cease
you would cease
they would cease

Past Conditional
I would have ceased
you would have ceased
he/she/it would have ceased
we would have ceased
you would have ceased
they would have ceased

Collins English Verb Tables © HarperCollins Publishers 2011

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Switch to new thesaurus

Noun	1.	cease - (`cease' is a noun only in the phrase `without cease') end end, ending - the point in time at which something ends; "the end of the year"; "the ending of warranty period"
Verb	1.	cease - put an end to a state or an activity; "Quit teasing your little brother" discontinue, lay off, quit, stop, give up knock off, drop - stop pursuing or acting; "drop a lawsuit"; "knock it off!" leave off - stop using; "leave off your jacket--no need to wear it here" sign off - cease broadcasting; get off the air; as of radio stations retire, withdraw - withdraw from active participation; "He retired from chess" pull the plug - prevent from happening or continuing; "The government pulled the plug on spending" close off, shut off - stem the flow of; "shut off the gas when you leave for a vacation" cheese - used in the imperative (get away, or stop it); "Cheese it!" call it a day, call it quits - stop doing what one is doing; "At midnight, the student decided to call it quits and closed his books" break - give up; "break cigarette smoking"
	2.	cease - have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical; "the bronchioles terminate in a capillary bed"; "Your rights stop where you infringe upon the rights of other"; "My property ends by the bushes"; "The symphony ends in a pianissimo" end, terminate, finish, stop pass away - go out of existence; "She hoped that the problem would eventually pass away" lapse - end, at least for a long time; "The correspondence lapsed" cut out - cease operating; "The pump suddenly cut out" go out - become extinguished; "The lights suddenly went out and we were in the dark" adjourn, recess, break up - close at the end of a session; "The court adjourned" disappear, vanish - cease to exist; "An entire civilization vanished" culminate - end, especially to reach a final or climactic stage; "The meeting culminated in a tearful embrace" run out - become used up; be exhausted; "Our supplies finally ran out" run low, run short, go - to be spent or finished; "The money had gone after a few days"; "Gas is running low at the gas stations in the Midwest" disappear, vanish, go away - become invisible or unnoticeable; "The effect vanished when day broke" conclude, close - come to a close; "The concert closed with a nocturne by Chopin" come out, turn out - result or end; "How will the game turn out?" discontinue - come to or be at an end; "the support from our sponsoring agency will discontinue after March 31" break - come to an end; "The heat wave finally broke yesterday"

cease

verb

1. stop, end, finish, be over, come to an end, peter out, die away Almost miraculously, the noise ceased.
stop start, begin, continue, commence

2. discontinue, end, stop, fail, finish, give up, conclude, suspend, halt, terminate, break off, refrain, leave off, give over (informal), bring to an end, desist, belay (Nautical) A small number of firms have ceased trading. discontinue start, begin, continue, initiate, commence

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

cease

verb

1. To prevent the occurrence or continuation of a movement, action, or operation:

arrest, belay, check, discontinue, halt, stall, stay, stop, surcease.

Idioms: bring to a standstill, call a halt to, put a stop to.

2. To come to a cessation:

arrest, belay, check, discontinue, halt, leave off, quit, stall, stop, surcease.

Idiom: come to a halt.

3. To stop suddenly, as a conversation, activity, or relationship:

break off, discontinue, interrupt, suspend, terminate.

noun

A concluding or terminating:

cessation, close, closing, closure, completion, conclusion, consummation, end, ending, end of the line, finish, period, stop, stopping point, termination, terminus, wind-up, wrap-up.

Translations

يَتَوَقَّف

přestatzastavit

ophøre

aufhören abbrechen

cesar dejar de

cesser arrêter

abbahagyabbamaradbefejezbeszüntetmegszűnik

hætta

cessare smettere interrompere arrestare

nepaliaujamainepaliaujamasnustoti

beigtpārtraukt

opphøre slutte

interromper

отстать

prekinitiprenehati

dur mak

停止

cease

[siːs]

A. VT (= stop) → cesar, parar; (= suspend) → suspender; (= end) → terminar
to cease work → suspender el trabajo, terminar de trabajar
cease fire! → ¡alto el fuego!

B. VI → cesar (to do, doing de hacer) to cease from doing sth → dejar de hacer algo, cesar de hacer algo

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

cease

[ˈsiːs]

vt (= halt) [+ trading, production, operations] → cesser
to cease publication [newspaper, magazine] → cesser de paraître

vi → cesser

cease

vi → enden, aufhören; (noise, shouting etc) → verstummen; we shall not cease from our endeavours (liter) → wir werden in unserem Streben nicht nachlassen (geh); without ceasing → ohne Pause, unaufhörlich; to cease from doing something (form) → von etw ablassen (geh)

vt → beenden; fire, payments, production → einstellen; to cease doing something → aufhören, etw zu tun; to cease to exist → aufhören zu bestehen; cease fire! → Feuer halt!

n without cease (liter) → unaufhörlich, ohne Unterlass (liter)

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

cease

[siːs] vt & vi → cessare, smettere

cease

(siːs) verb

to stop or (bring to an) end. They were ordered to cease firing; That department has ceased to exist; This foolishness must cease!; Cease this noise!

ˈceaseless adjective

continuous; never ceasing. ceaseless noise.

ˈceaselessly adverb

cease

vt. cesar, parar, detener.

References in classic literature ?

The Preacher found life and the works of life all a vanity and vexation, an evil thing; but death, the ceasing to be able to be vain and vexed, he found an eviler thing.

It is the darkness of death, the ceasing to be, the ceasing to feel, the ceasing to move, that is gathering about you, descending upon you, rising around you.

View in context

Then, wishing to make the best use of his time while he had the means of labor, he continued to work without ceasing. At the dawn of day he replaced the stone, pushed his bed against the wall, and lay down.