From Middle English cesen, cessen, from Middle French cesser, from Latin cessō, frequentative of cēdō ("to leave off, go away").

• IPA: /siːs/

cease (ceases, present participle ceasing; simple past and past participle ceased)

1. (formal, intransitive) To stop.

   Synonyms: discontinue, hold, terminate, Thesaurus:end, Thesaurus:stop

   And with that, his twitching ceased.

2. (formal, transitive) To stop doing (something).

   Synonyms: arrest, discontinue, Thesaurus:desist

   And with that, he ceased twitching.

3. (obsolete, intransitive) To be wanting; to fail; to pass away, perish.

   Synonyms: desert, lack

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Deuteronomy 15:11 ↗:

     The poor shall never cease out of the land.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗, lines 159-161:

     [...] wherefore ceaſe we then? / Say they who counſel Warr, we are decreed, / Reſerv'd and deſtin'd to Eternal woe;

   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto XXXIV, page 53 ↗:

     ’Twere best at once to sink to peace,
     ⁠Like birds the charming serpent draws,
     ⁠To drop head-foremost in the jaws
     Of vacant darkness and to cease.

• • cede
  • cessation
  • secede

   

• French: cesser, s'arrêter
• German: aufhören
• Italian: cessare, arrestare, smettere, interrompere
• Portuguese: cessar
• Russian: прекраща́ться
• Spanish: cesar, parar, terminar

• French: cesser de + infinitive, arrêter de + infinitive
• German: aufhören, einstellen
• Italian: cessare, smettere
• Portuguese: parar
• Russian: прекраща́ть
• Spanish: dejar

cease

1. (obsolete) Cessation; extinction (see without cease).
   • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iii]:

     the cease of majesty

Probably an Americanized form of German Zies.

• IPA: /siːs/

1. Surname.