cease
Americanverb (used without object)
-
ceases,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ceased,
past participle, past
-
ceasing
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
ceases,
present (3rd person singular)
-
ceased,
past participle, past
-
ceasing
present participle
noun
idioms
verb
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
ceasesimple
-
ceasessimple
-
have ceasedperfect
-
has ceasedperfect
-
am ceasingprogressive
-
are ceasingprogressive
-
is ceasingprogressive
-
have been ceasingperfect progressive
-
has been ceasingperfect progressive
Past
-
ceasedsimple
-
had ceasedperfect
-
was ceasingprogressive
-
were ceasingprogressive
-
had been ceasingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of cease
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English ces(s)en, from Old French cesser, from Latin cessāre “to leave off,” equivalent to cess(us) (past participle of cēdere “to withdraw, go”; see cede
Explanation
To cease is to stop or end. Your gym teacher may have trained the class so well that all chattering will cease every time she blows her whistle. Cease comes from the Old French cesser, which means "come to an end," "go away," "give up," or "yield." Although cease often appears in the past tense with "-ed," cease is common for talking about things as they come to an end. A dead plant has ceased living, and if you cease watering the rest of the plants, they will cease to exist too.
Vocabulary lists containing cease
"Romeo and Juliet" by William Shakespeare, Act II
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Christmas Carol Vocab: A Lyrical Lexicon
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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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:
But a professional firm will always have a trust manager available to take on the role, and if they cease operations, it would pass to another company.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 28, 2026
District Judge Indira Talwani granted requests from the states and the independent groups to halt the plans from being implemented nationwide, issuing a preliminary injunction requiring the Postal Service to cease all work on them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
President William Ruto had set today as the deadline for foreigners operating small-scale businesses to cease work.
From BBC ● Sep. 7, 2026
“Jason Isbell’s musical identity does not cease to be his property merely because sophisticated technology is involved,” the lawsuit says.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
This procession of gray days in a mental fog must eventually cease.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
Dostoevsky follows the narrator over four nights and a morning during which he ceases living in his imagination and embraces reality for the first time.
From Barron's ● Sep. 4, 2026
Yet the drag on the bottom line ceases after chips are fully depreciated.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 18, 2026
Researchers refer to this phenomenon as Goodhart’s law: “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.”
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Every assignment, he explains, ceases to be an individual endeavor.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
“It is a gift. You cannot earn it, or it ceases to be a gift.”
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
"I couldn't reach her on the phone. Little did I know she ceased to exist the instant that plane hit the building," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
Few organizations had imagined the destruction of an entire financial district, the loss of personnel, technology, communications and records, and the need to preserve public confidence while much of the city’s infrastructure had ceased functioning.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
Some trucking companies have ceased doing business, and many more will likely fail if high fuel costs do not subside soon.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 20, 2026
Facing the sea, Havana's famous Malecon seawall has ceased to be a promenade for tourists or lovers.
From Barron's ● Aug. 14, 2026
At the same time, those who performed experiments ceased to be lonely and isolated individuals; they became members of an experimental network.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Ferguson’s Law states that “any great power that spends more on debt servicing than on defense risks ceasing to be a great power.”
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026
Given all that, I was somewhat surprised to see heartfelt eulogies for the mail-order racket when Columbia House announced it was ceasing operations later this year.
From Salon ● Aug. 21, 2026
OnPoint Logistics will be ceasing operations at its San Francisco location and cutting 96 jobs, according to a government filing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
Samsung Electronics is ceasing sales of televisions and home appliances in China due to fierce competition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
Mrs. Hubbard did so, without ceasing to speak.
From "Murder on the Orient Express" by Agatha Christie
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.
