desist
/dɪˈsɪst/
desist verb: to cease to proceed or act; to stop (often with from).
Verb
desist (third-person singular simple present desists, present participle desisting, simple past and past participle desisted)
- To cease to proceed or act; to stop (often with from).
- Please desist from telephoning me at this number.
- One Ear was uttering quick, eager whines, lunging at the length of his stick toward the darkness, and desisting now and again in order to make frantic attacks on the stick with his teeth.1906 May–October, Jack London, chapter I, in White Fang, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., published October 1906, →OCLC, part 1 (The Wild)
- Synonyms:
- absist, belay, blin, break off, cease, cess, cheese it, come to an end, discontinue, forbear
desist meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
desist in Tamil
- தவிர்த்திரு, விலகியிரு
desist in Urdu
- ترک کرنا
desist in Bengali
- বিরত থাকা, ক্ষান্ত হওয়া
desist in Malayalam
- നിറുത്തുക, ഒഴിയുക, പിൻതിരിയുക, ഉപേക്ഷിക്കുക, വേണ്ടെന്നു വയ്ക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
- desist in Kannada
- ದೂರವಿರು, ಮುಂದುವರಿಸದಿರು, ಹಿಮ್ಮೆಟ್ಟು, ಮಾಣು
- desist in Sanskrit
- स्था sthā, तिष्ठति tíṣṭhati
- desist in Vietnamese
- ngừng, thôi, nghỉ, bỏ
Examples of desist in a sentence
- After hearing[,] an order was entered requiring respondent to cease and desist the practice complained of under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission act.1921, Annual Report of the Federal Trade Commission, page 173:
- Desist the kind of thinking that gets you into trouble.2005, Gerry Shishin Wick, The Book of Equanimity: Illuminating Classic Zen Koans, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 307:
Synonyms of desist
13 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of desist
| third-person singular present | desists |
|---|---|
| present participle | desisting |
| past participle | desisted |
| past | desisted |
Origin of desist
Borrowed from Middle French desister, from Latin dēsistō, from dē- + sistō (whence de-).
Words formed from desist
Words that rhyme with desist
43 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- frist
- insist
- Liszt
- piste
- tryst
- agist
- consist
- dismissed
- encyst
- hist
- pissed
- sist
- tier list
- trist
- whist
- wrist
- absist
- atwist
- bist
- cist
- coexist
- contrist
- cyst
- delist
- demist
- dissed
- dream list
- exist
- fair list
- get one's knickers in a twist
- glissed
- hissed
- is't
- ist
- kissed
- missed
- rankist
- schist
- triste
- unlist
- ventriloquist
- wist
- xyst
Questions about desist
- What does desist mean?
- Desist means to cease to proceed or act; to stop (often with from).
- What is desist in Tamil?
- Desist in Tamil is தவிர்த்திரு, விலகியிரு. See Desist meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use desist in a sentence?
- After hearing[,] an order was entered requiring respondent to cease and desist the practice complained of under section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission act.
- What part of speech is desist?
- Desist is a verb.
- How do you pronounce desist?
- Desist is pronounced /dɪˈsɪst/.
- What is the past tense of desist?
- The past tense of desist is desisted.
Words near desist in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: desist (page history and authors); desist (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); desist (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); Desist (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); desist (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); desist (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); तिष्ठति (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-desist.wav.
Cite this entry: “desist.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/desist. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.