Adjacent Words

Desist definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

DESIST, v.i. [L. To stand.] To stop; to cease to act or proceed; to forbear; with from; as, he desisted from his purpose; let us desist.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: choose not to consume; "I abstain from alcohol" [syn: abstain, refrain, desist] [ant: consume, have, ingest, take, take in]

Merriam Webster's

intransitive verb Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French desister, from Latin desistere, from de- + sistere to stand, stop; akin to Latin stare to stand — more at stand Date: 15th century to cease to proceed or act Synonyms: see stop • desistance noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.intr. (often foll. by from) literary abstain; cease (please desist from interrupting; when requested, he desisted). Etymology: OF desister f. L desistere (as DE-, sistere stop, redupl. f. stare stand)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Desist De*sist" (?; 277), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Desisted; p. pr. & vb. n. Desisting.] [L. desistere; de- + sistere to stand, stop, fr. stare to stand: cf. F. d['e]sister. See Stand.] To cease to proceed or act; to stop; to forbear; -- often with from. Never desisting to do evil. --E. Hall. To desist from his bad practice. --Massinger. Desist (thou art discern'd, And toil'st in vain). --Milton.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(desists, desisting, desisted) If you desist from doing something, you stop doing it. (FORMAL) Ford never desisted from trying to persuade him to return to America... VERB: V from -ing/n

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

v. a. Cease, stop, pause, forbear, stay, leave off, break off, give over.

Moby Thesaurus

abandon, abdicate, abjure, abort, acknowledge defeat, belay, cancel, cease, cede, come off, cry quits, cut it out, cut out, desist from, discontinue, disuse, drop, drop it, end, forgo, forswear, give, give over, give up, halt, hand over, have done with, hold, knock it off, lay down, lay off, leave off, let go, nol-pros, not pursue with, put behind one, quit, refrain, relinquish, renounce, resign, scrub, stay, stop, surrender, terminate, throw up, waive, yield