end
/ɛnd/ noun, verb
Forms ends ending ended eend ende
- noun The terminal point of something in space or time. “At the end of the garden there was a beautiful fountain.”
- noun Share of joint responsibility. “Are you sure they'll honor their end of the deal?”
- noun (by extension) The cessation of an effort, activity, state, or motion. “Is there no end to this madness?”
- noun (by extension, often with “the”) Death. “He met a terrible end in the jungle.”
- noun The most extreme point of an object, especially one that is longer than it is wide. “Hold the string at both ends.”
- noun Result.
- noun A purpose, goal, or aim. “For what end should I toil?”
- noun (cricket) One of the two parts of the ground used as a descriptive name for half of the ground. “The Pavillion End”
- verb (intransitive, ergative) To come to an end. “Is this movie never going to end?”
- verb (intransitive) To conclude; to bring something to an end. “The orchestra ended with a performance of Dvořák.”
- verb (transitive) To finish, terminate. “The referee blew the whistle to end the game.”
- noun A key that when pressed causes the cursor to go to the last character of the current line.
Synonyms
conclusion limit terminus termination purpose absolve complete conclude consummate discontinue do finalize finish fullcome get through round off stay stop terminate wind up terminal ending last final stage goal destruction death close closing remainder
Antonyms
beginning start begin commence execute inaugurate launch continue maintain proceed restart Home middle
Etymology
From Middle English ende, from Old English ende, from Proto-West Germanic *andī, from Proto-Germanic *andijaz (“end”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂entíos (“forehead; front”), from *h₂ent- (“face; forehead; front”), from *h₂en- (“on, onto”).
Cognate with Yola een, eene (“end”), Saterland Frisian Eend, Eende (“end”), West Frisian ein (“end”), Alemannic German End, Endi (“end”), Central Franconian Eng, Enk (“end”), Cimbrian énte (“end”), Dutch eind, einde, end (“end”), German Ende (“end”), Luxembourgish Enn (“end”), Vilamovian end, ent (“end”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk ende (“end”), Faroese endi (“end”), Icelandic endi, endir (“end”), Swedish ända, ände (“end”), Gothic 𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌴𐌹𐍃 (andeis, “end”); also Irish éadan (“end; front”), Manx eddin (“face; front”), Scottish Gaelic aodann (“face; hillside”), Latin antiae (“forelock”), Ancient Greek ἀντίος (antíos, “opposite”), Albanian anë (“brink; edge; facet; side”), Latvian no (“for; from”), Lithuanian nuo (“for; from”), Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, and Ukrainian на (na, “on”), Czech, Kashubian, Lower Sorbian, Polish, Slovak, and Slovene na (“on”), Serbo-Croatian на, na (“on”), Old Armenian ընդ (ənd, “in the place, instead of”), Old Persian 𐎠𐎲𐎡𐎹 (abiy, “against; towards; upon”), Tocharian A ānt (“in front”), Tocharian B ānte (“in front of”), Sanskrit अन्त (anta, “boundary; border, edge; end, termination”). More at and and anti-.
The verb is from Middle English enden, endien, from Old English endian (“to end, to make an end of, complete, finish, abolish, destroy, come to an end, die”), from Proto-Germanic *andijōną (“to finish, end”), denominative from *andijaz.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The extreme or last point or part of any material thing considered lengthwise (the extremity of breadth being side); hence, extremity, in general; the concluding part; termination; close; limit; as, the end of a field, line, pole, road; the end of a year, of a discourse; put an end to pain; --opposed to Ant: beginning, when used of anything having a first part.
- noun Point beyond which no procession can be made; conclusion; issue; result, whether successful or otherwise; conclusive event; consequence.
- verb To bring to an end or conclusion; to finish; to close; to terminate; as, to end a speech. "I shall end this strife." Shak.
- verb To form or be at the end of; as, the letter k ends the word back.
Etymology [OE. & AS. ende; akin to OS. endi, D. einde, eind, OHG. enti, G. ende, Icel. endir, endi, Sw. ände, Dan. ende, Goth. andeis, Skr. anta. Ante-, Anti-, Answer.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “end”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details