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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Nearby words
- ce,
- cea,
- ceanothus,
- ceará,
- cease,
- cease-and-desist order,
- cease-fire,
- ceasefire,
- ceaseless,
- ceaselessly
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
It is a place where cease-and-desist letters are hung on the wall with pride.
New York Post Looks Thinner After News Corporation Split|David Freedlander|July 18, 2013|DAILY BEASTCease-and-desist requests—whether formal legal orders or verbal rants—are hardly rare in politics.
The Long, Strange U-Turn of Twisted Sister’s ‘We’re Not Gonna Take It’|Kevin Fallon|August 24, 2012|DAILY BEASTAs a result, DeRose sent Jose a cease-and-desist order in September.
Paul Babeu, Immigration Hawk Sheriff, Outed by Alleged Mexican Gay Lover|Terry Greene Sterling|February 18, 2012|DAILY BEAST