From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishceasecease1 /siːs/ ●●○ W3 AWL verb [intransitive, transitive] 1 formalSTOP DOING somethingSTOP HAPPENING to stop doing something or stop happeningcease to do something He ceased to be a member of the association. The things people will do for charity never cease to amaze me (=I am always surprised by them).cease doing something the decision to cease using CFCs in packaging The rain ceased and the sky cleared.cease trading/production/operations etc (=stop operating a business) The company ceased production at their Norwich plant last year.cease fire! (=used to order soldiers to stop shooting)► see thesaurus at stopRegisterIn everyday English, people usually use stop rather than cease: They have stopped using CFCs in packaging.The rain stopped just as the fireworks began.2 → cease and desist → ceasefire, → wonders will never cease at wonder2(5)→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
cease• By noon the rain had ceased.• Hostilities between the two countries have now ceased.• The sound of gunfire gradually receded and then ceased altogether.• Presently, the rain ceased and the sun came out.• All conversation ceased as the two police officers entered.• That step is to cease attacking Dubrovnik and to withdraw from it.• The mill ceased operating commercially two years ago.• The factory has now ceased production and will close next month.• The newspaper has been forced to cease publication.• Andy Davis, with a strong departmental power base in marketing, had ceased to argue so strongly for diversification.• Indeed the psychiatric hospitals themselves may, in many areas, cease to exist.• The world had ceased to exist.• Many of these firms have now ceased to exist.• For those above them -- households with over $ 62,000 -- the payroll tax ceases to grow.• The arrangement ended on 1 January when the Soviet Union ceased trading with its former allies on a convertible rouble basis.• We cease trying vainly to understand the secrets of the Universe as we have hitherto tried to do.• There was nothing to do except wait for the gale to cease while we let Hsu Fu drift with the wind.cease to do something• These towers of loops never cease to amuse us because inevitably the messages circulating along them cross their own paths.• He had ceased to be a problem to us.• Royal favor ceased to be an essential condition for forming the Government.• It was an enormous step for man to cease to be reliant on vegetation, and to add meat to his diet.• And when the behavior ceases to be rewarding, the behavior itself ceases.• Eliot's argument, never entirely convincing in its own age, had by the 1940s ceased to convince altogether.• It was odd to me that Wisconsin Steel finally had a real union, just as the place technically ceased to exist.• Without the Facilities Department, the university would soon cease to function.• All three were drinking whisky, barely moistened with soda water, with a rapidity that had ceased to startle their friends.ceasecease2 noun → without ceaseExamples from the Corpus
cease• As long as you lack something, you yearn for it without cease.• Aircraft landed and took off without cease, so that seldom less than a dozen were airborne at one time.Origin cease1 (1300-1400) Old French cesser, from Latin cessare “to delay”, from cedere; → CEDE 