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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.

The act or state of desisting; cessation. [R.] Boyle. If fatigue of body or brain were in every case followed by desistance . . . then would the system be but seldom out of working order. H. Spencer.

Final; conclusive; ending. [R.]

One versed in geodesy.

To stand apart from; top leave off; to desist. [Obs.] Raleigh.

To stop; to cease; to desist. [Obs.] Spenser.

To come to an end; to stop; to leave off or give over; to desist; as, the noise ceased "To cease from strife." Prov. xx. 3.

ffair; interest. "Our everlasting concernments." I. Watts. To mix with thy concernments I desist. Milton.

To forsake; to abandon; to desist or deviate (from); not to adhere to; -- with from; as, we can not depart from our rules; to depart from a title or defense in legal pleading. If the plan of the convention be found to depart from republican principles. Madison.

th. -- To have done, to have made an end or conclusion; to have finished; to be quit; to desist. -- To have done with, to have completed; to be through with; to have no further concern with. -- Well to do, in easy circumstances.

duct, representing the wrong he has done or intends, and urging him to make redress or to desist; to remonstrate; -- followed by with. Men expostulate with erring friends; they bring accusations against enemies who have done them a wrong. Jowett (Thuc. ).

eing to give out; the flour has given out. -- To give over, to cease; to discontinue; to desist. It would be well for all authors, if they knew when to give over, and to desist from any further pursuits after fame. Addison. -- To give up, to cease from effort; to yield; to despair; as, he would never give up.…

fatigue of such severe service." De Quincey. -- To knock off, to cease, as from work; to desist. -- To knock under, to yield; to submit; to acknowledge one's self conquered; -- an expression probably borrowed from the practice of knocking under the table with the knuckles, when conquered. "Colonel Esmond knocked unde…

doth this day laugh away his fortune." Shak. -- To laugh down. (a) To cause to cease or desist by laughter; as, to laugh down a speaker. (b) To cause to be given up on account of ridicule; as, to laugh down a reform. -- To laugh one out of, to cause one by laughter or ridicule to abandon or give up; as, to laugh one…

To cease from; to desist from; to abstain from. Now leave complaining and begin your tea. Pope.

To withdraw a claim or pretension; to desist; to relinquish what had been proposed or asserted; as, to recede from a demand or proposition.

To withdraw from; to leave behind; to desist from; to abandon; to quit; as, to relinquish a pursuit. We ought to relinquish such rites. Hooker. They placed Irish tenants upon the lands relinquished by the English. Sir J. Davies.

To cease from action or motion, especially from action which has caused weariness; to desist from labor or exertion. God . . . rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. Gen. ii. 2. Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest. Ex. xxiii. 12.

To end; to cease; to desist; to slake. [Obs.] That through your death your lineage should slack. Chaucer. They will not of that firste purpose slack. Chaucer.

To desist; to stop; to refrain. [Obs.] Chaucer.