end
noun
the last part or extremity, lengthwise, of anything that is longer than it is wide or broad.
end
1 American
[end]
/ ɛnd /
noun
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ends
plural
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the last part or extremity, lengthwise, of anything that is longer than it is wide or broad.
the end of a street;
the end of a rope.
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a point, line, or limitation that indicates the full extent, degree, etc., of something; limit; bounds.
kindness without end;
to walk from end to end of a city.
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a part or place at or adjacent to an extremity: the west end of town.
at the end of the table;
the west end of town.
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the furthermost imaginable place or point.
an island at the very end of the world.
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The journey was coming to an end.
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the concluding part.
The end of her speech had to be cut short because of time.
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an intention or aim.
to gain one's ends.
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the object for which a thing exists; purpose.
The happiness of the people is the end of government.
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an outcome or result.
What is to be the end of all this bickering?
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termination of existence; death.
He met a horrible end.
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a cause of death, destruction, or ruin.
Another war would be the end of civilization.
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a remnant or fragment: ends and trimmings.
mill end;
ends and trimmings.
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a share or part in something.
He does his end of the job very well.
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Textiles. a warp thread running vertically and interlaced with the filling yarn in the woven fabric.
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Football.
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either of the linemen: stationed farthest from the center.
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the position played by this lineman.
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Archery. the number of arrows to be shot by a competitor during one turn in a match.
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Cricket. a wicket, especially the one where the batsman is taking a turn.
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a unit of a game, as in curling or lawn bowling.
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Kantianism. any rational being, regarded as worthy to exist for its own sake.
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either half of a domino.
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Knots. the part of a rope, beyond a knot or the like, that is not used.
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Slang. the end, the ultimate; the utmost of good or bad.
His stupidity is the end.
verb (used with object)
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to bring to an end or conclusion.
We ended the discussion on a note of optimism.
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to put an end to; terminate.
This was the battle that ended the war.
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to form the end of.
This passage ends the novel.
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to cause the demise of; kill.
A bullet through the heart ended him.
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to constitute the most outstanding or greatest possible example or instance of (usually used in the infinitive).
You just committed the blunder to end all blunders.
verb (used without object)
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to come to an end; terminate; cease.
The road ends at Rome.
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to issue or result.
Extravagance ends in want.
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to reach or arrive at a final condition, circumstance, or goal (often followed byup ): to end as a happy person.
to end up in the army;
to end as a happy person.
adjective
idioms
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at loose ends, without an occupation or plans; unsettled; uncertain.
He spent two years wandering about the country at loose ends.
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make ends meet, to live within one's means: Also make both ends meet.
Despite her meager income, she tried to make ends meet.
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end to end, in a row with ends touching.
The pipes were placed end to end on the ground.
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go off the deep end, to act in a reckless or agitated manner; lose emotional control.
She went off the deep end when she lost her job.
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keep / hold one's end up, to perform one's part or share adequately.
The work is demanding, but he's holding his end up.
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make an end of, to conclude; stop.
Let's make an end of this foolishness and get down to work.
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end for end, in reverse position; inverted.
The cartons were turned end for end.
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in the end, finally; after all.
In the end they shook hands and made up.
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at one's wit's end, at the end of one's ideas or mental resources; perplexed: Also at one's wits' end.
I'm at my wit's end with this problem.
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put an end to, to cause to stop; terminate; finish.
The advent of sound in motion pictures put an end to many a silent star's career.
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on end,
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having the end down; upright.
to stand a box on end.
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continuously; successively.
They talked for hours on end.
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at the end of the day. see at the end of the day.
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no end, very much or many.
They were pleased no end by the warm reception.
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end on, with the end next to or facing.
He backed the truck until it was end on with the loading platform.
end
2
American
[end]
/ ɛnd /
verb (used with object)
British Dialect.
end-
3
American
end.
4
American
abbreviation
end
1
British
/ ɛnd /
noun
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the extremity of the length of something, such as a road, line, etc
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the surface at either extremity of a three-dimensional object
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the extreme extent, limit, or degree of something
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the most distant place or time that can be imagined
the ends of the earth
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the time at which something is concluded
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the last section or part
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( as modifier )
the end office
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a share or part
his end of the bargain
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(often plural) a remnant or fragment (esp in the phrase odds and ends )
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a final state, esp death; destruction
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the purpose of an action or existence
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sport either of the two defended areas of a playing field, rink, etc
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bowls curling a section of play from one side of the rink to the other
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American football a player at the extremity of the playing line; wing
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totally or completely
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informal an unpleasant death
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without purpose or occupation
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exhausted or completed
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See day
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to become completed or exhausted
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with the end pointing towards one
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with the end adjacent to the end of another object
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informal to lose one's temper; react angrily
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slang to have sexual intercourse
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finally
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to sustain one's part in a joint enterprise
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to hold one's own in an argument, contest, etc
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to spend no more than the money one has
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informal (intensifier)
I had no end of work
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upright
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without pause or interruption
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informal
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the worst, esp something that goes beyond the limits of endurance
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the best in quality
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the point beyond which survival or continuation is impossible
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to put someone into a new situation, job, etc, without preparation or introduction
verb
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to bring or come to a finish; conclude
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to die or cause to die
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(tr) to surpass; outdo
a novel to end all novels
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informal to commit suicide
-end
2
British
suffix
end
3
British
/ ɛnd /
verb
end-
4
British
combining form
end
More Idioms
Usage
What is a basic definition of end? An end is a conclusion or a last part of a long object. To end is to cease. The word end has many other senses as a verb, noun, and adjective and is used in several idioms. End is a very general word that means a conclusion or a part that is near the conclusion. For example, the end of the summer is the exact moment that it stops being summer, while the end of a movie is the last scene or even the last act. End is often used figuratively to mean death, which is the end of a person’s life.
- Real-life examples: The end of World War II occurred in 1945. The credits usually happen at the end of a movie. Sunset signals the end of daytime.
- Used in a sentence: I liked the beginning of the book, but it got boring near the end.
- Real-life examples: You can end a fight by walking away. A class often ends when the bell rings. Sometimes, though, the teacher ends the class early and lets all the students leave.
- Used in a sentence: The song was just getting good when it suddenly ended.
- Real-life examples: Most power cables have one end that plugs into an electronic device and another end that plugs into the wall. You usually walk across a hallway from one end to the other. A soccer field has goals at each end.
- Used in a sentence: Always point the sharp end of the scissors away from people when you carry them.
Synonym Usage
End, close, conclusion, finish, outcome refer to the termination of something. End implies a natural termination or completion, or an attainment of purpose: the end of a day, of a race; to some good end. Close often implies a planned rounding off of something in process: the close of a conference. Conclusion suggests a decision or arrangement: All evidence leads to this conclusion; the conclusion of peace terms. Finish emphasizes completion of something begun: a fight to the finish. Outcome suggests the issue of something that was in doubt: the outcome of a game. See aim.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of end1
First recorded before 900; Middle English, Old English ende; cognate with Old Frisian enda, Middle Dutch e(i)nde, Old Saxon endi, Old High German anti, German Ende, Old Norse endi(r), Gothic andeis “end,” from unattested Germanic anthjá-; akin to Sanskrit ánta- “end”
Origin of end2
First recorded in 1610–20; perhaps variant of dialect in “to harvest,” from Old English innian “to lodge, put up”; see inn
Explanation
The end of something is its final point or farthest edge. After your cat unwinds a ball of yarn, you may find one end of it in your kitchen and the other end upstairs in the bathroom. A piece of string has two ends, while stories, races, and years have just one end each. When you buy a length of fabric, the leftover bit is an end, and the final point of almost anything — a play or a marriage — is also an end. When you end something, you make it conclude. In football, an "end zone" is the far side of the field, and a "defensive end" is a player near the sideline.
Vocabulary lists containing end
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Others end abruptly, forcing people back onto the carriageway.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
McConnell plans to retire at the end of the year.
From Salon ● Aug. 6, 2026
To stop them in their tracks, Taiwan's military practised blocking the bridge in an hours-long drill that was to end Friday morning before peak-hour traffic.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
The round of talks that ended Thursday didn’t end in a significant breakthrough.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 6, 2026
Her mother worked long hours, and when she had free time, she disappeared for days on end.
From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith
In a similar way, when supper was end-
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2025
After Saturday’s final buzzer, that’s a number that inspired the senior-led group to sprint from the court, run into the end- zone stands, and leap into a mosh pit of bouncing and cheering students.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 5, 2023
There are many other interesting examples of force and torque in the body—a few of these are the subject of end- of-chapter problems.
From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015
That means the euro zone will miss a self-imposed end- November deadline for signing the new version.
From BusinessWeek ● Nov. 10, 2011
There’s a couple of Peruvian musicians playing in the little grassy island in the street near the pier, and maybe fifty people—locals and vacationers—have gathered around, offering their bland end- of-summer faces to the sound.
From "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich
“You are dealing with imperfect information. So the mindset is to take down the exposure if it is the beginning of the end. We have a short leash on these stocks,” he said.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 27, 2026
"I never thought of leaving. This is where I was born, this is where I live and this is where I'll live until the very end. I'm not going anywhere."
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
"People will win in the end. No authoritarian government can stand up to a united people -- and we are united," said another protester, 59-year-old chemist Irakli Nanadze.
From Barron's ● May 26, 2026
“But now, there’s no known time horizon for this to end. And that can get them into panic mode.”
From MarketWatch ● May 1, 2026
“He talked about you, Lord almighty, right up till the very end. He’d be so pleased to know you had come.”
From "Hattie Big Sky" by Kirby Larson
The modern tendency is to confine -nce to action, and to express quality or state by -ncy; cf. compliance, pliancy, annoyance, buoyancy. -and, -end, noun suffix, as viand, legend.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
According to these, the -ing in words like rising is not the -ing of the present participle; neither has it originated in the Anglo-Saxon -end.
From A Handbook of the English Language by Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Nearly a third of urban workers walk to work, while virtually every bus or metro journey begins and ends on foot.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
As part of this year's Han Kuang, which ends on August 14, Taiwanese and US-made surface-to-air missile systems were deployed in Taipei.
From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio provided insight into the administration’s hope for a two-step negotiation that, eventually, ends with severe caps on Iran’s nuclear advancements.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
The momentum in the second quarter might be hard to sustain unless the war ends, oil prices fall and inflation subsides.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
“Zebras need their stripes so predators can’t tell where one starts and the other ends, and that makes it hard to pinpoint one animal to attack. Elephants don’t need that because they’re so big.”
From "Boy 2.0" by Tracey Baptiste
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
