cease and desist
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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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
Examples from the Web for cease and desist
Contemporary Examples
It is a place where cease-and-desist letters are hung on the wall with pride.
Cease-and-desist requests—whether formal legal orders or verbal rants—are hardly rare in politics.
As a result, DeRose sent Jose a cease-and-desist order in September.
Paul Babeu, Immigration Hawk Sheriff, Outed by Alleged Mexican Gay LoverTerry Greene Sterling
February 18, 2012