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]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cease and desist

Police say that during the visit Flowers did not engage with officers and was given a cease and desist order to deter him from further offending.

From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026

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

The bar claims the firm refused to remove the attorney’s name from its website for years, ignoring a cease and desist letter from McBratney’s new employer.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2026

Authorities said the agreement effectively restricted the number of resellers of Apple products on Amazon’s Spanish website and issued a cease and desist order for the companies to amend their contracts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 25, 2026

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