desist
Americanverb (used without object)
-
desists,
present (3rd person singular)
-
desisted,
past participle, past
-
desisting
present participle
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
desistsimple
-
desistssimple
-
have desistedperfect
-
has desistedperfect
-
am desistingprogressive
-
are desistingprogressive
-
is desistingprogressive
-
have been desistingperfect progressive
-
has been desistingperfect progressive
Past
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desistedsimple
-
had desistedperfect
-
was desistingprogressive
-
were desistingprogressive
-
had been desistingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of desist
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English, from Old French desister, from Latin dēsistere “to leave off,” equivalent to dē- de- + sistere “to stand, place,” akin to stāre “to stand” ( see stand)
Explanation
You can use the verb desist as a way to say "stop" or "cease." Instead of yelling "Cut it out!" the new neighbor asked the tween girls to desist from playing any more loud, screeching music from that long-haired boy-band. If you want to insist that someone stop doing something, the word desist is a solid choice. It's often used as part of a legal order called a "cease and desist," which forces an action to come to a halt. "Cease" is a synonym for desist, so using the two together says "stop it!" loud and clear — and kind of redundantly. While cease often goes hand in hand with it, desist, can also be followed by from in the form another command: "Desist from camping on the lawn of your favorite singer's home so you won't be arrested."
Vocabulary lists containing desist
Their Eyes Were Watching God
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Refugee
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In the Time of the Butterflies
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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.
See Examples For:
Last month, Dawn Buckingham, who leads the General Land Office, sent a cease and desist letter to CBP and a federal contractor she said had illegally cleared GLO-owned land in Presidio County.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 2026
“Accordingly, LSU must immediately cease and desist from any further issue use, display, publication, distribution, promotion, commercialization, or other exploitation of Mr. Daniels’ NIL in any manner or medium,” Kenner wrote.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
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
He was given a cease and desist notice and details about previous court cases which had seen defendants receiving custodial sentences.
From BBC ● Jun. 2, 2026
Nothing made him desist except his own lamentable state of demoralization.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Discovery were the latest studios to send cease and desists letter to ByteDance on Tuesday.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2026
“An honest conversation about coal and its miners needs to be had, and we should neither cease or desists from having it.”
From The Guardian ● Jun. 19, 2017
"I've gotten cease and desists before," he says.
From Time Magazine Archive
The crabs are then strung upon a string or wythe, and allowed to hang in the water until the crabber desists from his occupations.
From Rambles of a Naturalist by John D. Godman
The names of Prue, Freddy, Oxford, force themselves into her record of expenditure, making nonsense of it, defacing her neat columns; and after half an hour's vain efforts, she desists with a sigh.
From Doctor Cupid by Rhoda Broughton
Anderson "desisted" when the woman did not say yes and left the bedroom, at which point the complainant heard her vomiting in the bathroom.
From BBC ● Mar. 9, 2026
This inaugural episode was met with a cease-and-desist letter from Fox News, and while Carlson neither ceased nor desisted, it ultimately didn’t matter, because “Tucker on Twitter” did not sustain its initial momentum.
From Slate ● May 17, 2024
The next week, her lawyer sent a letter to BRIC, saying that unless Zahedi desisted from airing any episodes featuring footage of Field or the children, she would “commence legal action.”
From New York Times ● Oct. 30, 2019
During that time I’d desisted not only from buying a new wallet but even from cancelling or replacing my credit cards and my driver’s license and my health-insurance card.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 25, 2018
She saw the terrible agony and the lips tightened down to hold back the cry and desisted.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
A 2022 study of 317 trans youths discovered that after an average of five years of socially transitioning only 2.5 percent of participants ended up desisting and identifying as cisgender.
From Slate ● May 2, 2023
Lucy exclaimed, desisting from her occupation of opening books and turning over music; "for you can tell us all about Nola and her love story."
From The Galaxy, April, 1877 Vol. XXIII.—April, 1877.—No. 4. by Various
“It surely was,” replied Mrs. Ransford, desisting for a moment from her efforts to bestow a pile of dainty shoes into a night-dress case of elaborate drawn thread work.
From The Golden Woman A Story of the Montana Hills by Ridgwell Cullum
Promptly desisting from his work, he invited the young pair to seat themselves; and Adela, who was just then stitching at some of her semi-savage contrivances, also rose to offer welcome.
From True and Other Stories by George Parsons Lathrop
He began to go over it all, but, desisting from sheer inability, pitched his attention on the rapids.
From The Rapids by Alan Sullivan
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.
