cease and desist

verb

Etymology

From cease (“stop”), and desist (“to not do again”). The noun sense can be viewed synchronically as an ellipsis of cease-and-desist order.

Definitions

  1. To stop and not resume an action.

    • We are told to cease and desist or we will cease to exist.
  2. A written demand that a party stops and does not resume a certain behavior, such as…

    A written demand that a party stops and does not resume a certain behavior, such as copyright infringement, slander, or libel, threatening legal action if the recipient fails to do so.

    • She received a cease-and-desist from his solicitors soon after the podcast.
  3. An order by a government agency, sanctioned by a court, that one must stop and not resume…

    An order by a government agency, sanctioned by a court, that one must stop and not resume a certain (usually illegal) behavior.

    • His remarks did not stop the courts from issuing the cease-and-desist order.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for cease and desist. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA