Definition of desist
: to cease to proceed or act
- a court order to desist from selling the product
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Examples of desist in a Sentence
Despite orders from the police, the protesters would not desist.
Recent Examples of desist from the Web
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The settlement is related to a cease-and-desist order Massachusetts officials obtained against Ocwen in April 2017, part of broad national action by regulators from more than 30 jurisdictions for deficient loan-servicing practices.
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Those documents include a cease-and-desist order from the president's lawyer to Daniels -- and a defamation suit by Daniels against the lawyer.
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But Smart, who was kidnapped from her Utah home as a teenager in 2002, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to demand that her name be removed from it.
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Both Trump and Daniels denied the story, and Daniels’s attorney Keith Davidson sent a cease-and-desist letter to The Dirty in retaliation.
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In the same week that her play was set to debut, Evans received a cease-and-desist letter from Dorsey’s grandson, Thomas Dorsey III.
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The state of California has issued a cease-and-desist order to a compounding business run by AmerisourceBergen (ABC), one of the nation’s largest pharmaceutical wholesalers, and the move could jeopardize a key license the company holds in the state.
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The Little Italy Association is lobbying Civic San Diego, which oversees policies for the downtown area, to request a cease-and-desist action until the San Diego City Council can study the problem and approve a comprehensive set of regulations.
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As Ad Age reported, street artist Jason Williams, aka Revok, recently sent H&M a cease-and-desist letter after the fashion retailer featured some of his graffiti in an activewear ad campaign.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'desist.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Origin and Etymology of desist
Middle English, from Anglo-French desister, from Latin desistere, from de- + sistere to stand, stop; akin to Latin stare to stand — more at stand
NEW! Time Traveler
First Known Use: 15th century
in the meaning defined above
See Words from the same yearSynonym Discussion of desist
stop, cease, quit, discontinue, desist mean to suspend or cause to suspend activity. stop applies to action or progress or to what is operating or progressing and may imply suddenness or definiteness.
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- stopped at the red light
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- by nightfall the fighting had ceased
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- the engine faltered, sputtered, then quit altogether
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- we have discontinued the manufacture of that item
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- desisted from further efforts to persuade them
DESIST Defined for English Language Learners
DESIST Defined for Kids
Definition of desist for Students
desisted;
desisting
: to stop doing something
- Please desist from making that noise.
Learn More about desist
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See words that rhyme with desist Spanish Central: Translation of desist Britannica English: Translation of desist for Arabic speakers
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