What does cease mean?
To cease is to stop — to bring an action, process, or state to an end. It is a distinctly formal word, far more at home in a court order, a news report, or a military communiqué than in everyday chat, where the plain word 'stop' has largely taken its place. You will meet it in phrases like 'hostilities ceased,' 'cease to exist,' 'cease trading,' and famously in the legal injunction to 'cease and desist.' Despite its formality, cease carries real expressive weight: because it suggests an ending rather than a mere pause, writers reach for it when they want gravity or finality — the music ceased, the heartbeat ceased, an entire way of life may simply cease. Its close relative 'ceaseless,' meaning endless or unending, ironically derives from the very word for stopping. For learners of English, mastering cease opens the door to a whole register of official and literary language that plainer verbs cannot supply.
To stop doing something or to come to an end.
"The machines ceased working the moment the power failed."
Takes either a direct object ('ceased operations') or the infinitive construction ('ceased to exist'); both are standard.
An archaic or literary use meaning cessation; the act of ceasing.
"They worked without cease until the harvest was gathered."
As a standalone noun this sense is now rare; the normal noun is 'cessation.'
The legal phrase 'cease and desist' is so old-fashioned that it preserves a verb most everyday speech abandoned decades ago — yet it's still one of the first words lawyers reach for.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cease
Cease entered Middle English from Old French 'cesser,' which derived from Latin 'cessare,' meaning to delay, be idle, or leave off — itself a frequentative form of 'cedere,' to go or yield. The same Latin root gave rise to a family of English words sharing the sense of yielding or stopping, including 'cessation,' 'incessant,' 'concession,' and even 'deceased.' It has been part of the language since roughly the thirteenth century, retaining a formal register throughout its history.
Related word forms
How cease is actually used
Formal register: common in legal, military, journalistic, and official contexts, but rare in casual conversation, where 'stop' dominates. In British English, 'cease' often takes a direct object ('ceased publication'), while the construction 'cease to do something' is widespread in both varieties. The phrase 'without cease' is literary.
Easily confused with cease
Cease means to stop or end something, while seize (its near-spelling opposite) means to take hold of something suddenly or forcibly.