END, v.
Synonyms:
| break off, | close, | conclude, | expire, | quit, | terminate, |
| cease, | complete, | desist, | finish, | stop, | wind up. |
That ends, or is ended, of which there is no more, whether or not more was intended or needed; that is closed, completed, concluded, or finished which has come to an expected or appropriate end. A speech may be ended almost as soon as begun, because of the speaker's illness, or of tumult in the audience; in such a case, the speech is neither closed, completed, nor finished, nor, in the strict sense, concluded. An argument may be closed with nothing proved; when an argument is concluded all that is deemed necessary to prove the point has been stated. To finish is to do the last thing there is to do; as, "I have finished my course," 2 Tim. iv, 7. Finish has come to mean, not merely to complete in the essentials, but to perfect in all the minute details, as in the expression "to add the finishing touches." The enumeration is completed; the poem, the picture, the statue is finished. To terminate may be either to bring to an arbitrary or to an appropriate end; as, he terminated his remarks abruptly; the spire terminates in a cross. A thing stops that comes to rest from motion; or the motion stops or ceases when the object comes to rest; stop frequently signifies to bring or come to a sudden and decided cessation of motion, progress, or action of any kind. Compare DO; TRANSACT.
Antonyms:
See synonyms for BEGIN.