cease and desist

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

“In the time Sable Offshore has owned the pipeline, they’ve broken the law, shirked multiple cease and desist orders, and have yet to pay the $18 million fine for defying stop work orders,” Limón said in a statement.

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This comes after a booster to Narbonne, St. Bernard and Bishop Montgomery, Brett Steigh, received a letter from an attorney with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles telling him to “cease and desist” from helping any Catholic schools.

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Ultimately, the ice cream flavor was hit with a cease and desist letter from Lady Gaga, whose legal team took issue with associating the pop star’s name with a food product that “may be unsafe for human consumption.”

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Activision warned Rothholz to cease and desist his alleged hacking activities in June 2023.

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On July 10, the band asked the government to cease and desist the use of its recording and pull down the video.

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