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cease and desist

Idioms  

  1. Stop, leave off doing something, as in: “Bliss excavated at least once on his own and Dr. Brand ... told him to cease and desist” (Douglas Preston quoting Frank Hibben, The New Yorker, June 12, 1995). This legal term is a redundancy, since cease and desist mean virtually the same thing, but often appears in legal documents to avoid possible misinterpretation. [c. 1920]

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.

Small is represented by barrister Francis McEntegart, who sent a cease and desist letter to the club with a demand for compensation.

From BBC • Apr. 24, 2026

Swalwell’s attorneys filed a cease and desist letter with Patel and the FBI.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 7, 2026

In October, it sent a cease and desist letter to Perplexity.

From Barron's • Jan. 13, 2026

Mark Joseph Stern: I think he is begging us to please cease and desist calling them “Kavanaugh stops.”

From Slate • Dec. 30, 2025

One day he lit into Vanguard’s index funds and almost instantly received a cease and desist order from Vanguard’s attorneys.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

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.