surcease
Americanverb (used without object)
-
to cease from some action; desist.
-
to come to an end.
verb (used with object)
noun
noun
verb
-
to desist from (some action)
-
to cease or cause to cease
Etymology
Origin of surcease
1400–50; sur- 1 + cease; replacing late Middle English sursesen (v.) < Middle French sursis (past participle of surseoir ) < Latin supersessus (past participle of supersedēre to forbear; see supersede), equivalent to super- super- + sed ( ēre ) sit 1 + -tus past participle suffix, with dt > ss
Explanation
Surcease is a fancy word for "ending." If you want a movie to end, you long for its surcease. This word can be used as a noun or verb, but either way it means something is finished. If you surcease working, then you finished your homework for the day. Many people hate when their sleep comes to a surcease in the morning. If a clumsy dentist is causing you pain, you might yell "Surcease! Surcease!" That just means "Stop it!" In life, everything surceases eventually. This is a word you’re likely to see in poetry and other formal writing.
Vocabulary lists containing surcease
Romeo and Juliet
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"The Raven"
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"Macbeth": Act 1 Scene 7
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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:
So if there is surcease from sorrow, and my name is attached to it, thank God.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 21, 2023
I'll hope for just a few years to spend not wishing every day were over just a weekend, and a momentary surcease.
From New York Times ● Mar. 30, 2018
As report after report indicates, he attacks, lashes out, mocks, tweets, pummels, charges and complains, showering calumny on others even as he praises his achievements without surcease.
From Salon ● Mar. 6, 2017
Triumph seemed to bring no surcease to him.
From Time Magazine Archive
“I’ve gained pounds lying continuously in bed, seeking surcease and sublimation in food. Now we must run. I must leave this house. It has terrible associations.”
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
The Montanines also that remayned at Siena, liued in quyet, wythoute chalenge or quarell of their aduersaries, howbeit mutuall talke and haunt of others company vtterly surceased.
From The Palace of Pleasure Volume 3 by William Painter
The morris-dancers stood still—the hobby-horse surceased his capering—pipe and tabor were mute, and "silence, like a heavy cloud," seemed to descend on the once noisy rabble.
From The Abbot by Sir Walter Scott
Heart, did we not think that she Had surceased her tyranny?
From New Poems by Francis Thompson
Forthwith the wind surceased, the ocean became silent, the tempest is appeased, and a great calm is made.
From The Most Ancient Lives of Saint Patrick Including the Life by Jocelin, Hitherto Unpublished in America, and His Extant Writings by James O'Leary
In laughter spasms ye reel, or shout applause, Music surceased.
From Legends of the Saxon Saints by Aubrey De Vere
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.
