End
Pronunciation
- enPR: ĕnd, IPA: /ɛnd/
- Rhymes: -ɛnd
Origin
From Middle English ende, from Old English ende, from Proto-Germanic *andijaz (compare Dutch einde, German Ende, Swedish ände), from Proto-Indo-European *antios (compare Old Irish ét ("end, point"), Latin antiae ("forelock"), Albanian anë ("side"), Ancient Greek ἀντίος (antios, "opposite"), Sanskrit अनà¥à¤¤à¥à¤¯ (antya, "last")), from *hâ‚‚enti ("opposite"). More at 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 *andijÅnÄ… ("to finish, end"), denominative from *andijaz.
Full definition of end
Noun
end
(plural ends)- The final point of something in space or time.
- 1908: Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willowsthey followed him... into a sort of a central hall; out of which they could dimly see other long tunnel-like passages branching, passages mysterious and without apparent end.
- 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 4, I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.
- At the end of the road, turn left. At the end of the story, the main characters fall in love.
- The cessation of an effort, activity, state, or motion.Is there no end to this madness?
- Death, especially miserable.He met a terrible end in the jungle.I hope the end comes quickly.
- unknown date ShakespeareConfound your hidden falsehood, and award
Either of you to be the other's end. - unknown date Alexander Popeunblamed through life, lamented in thy end
- Result.
- unknown date ShakespeareO that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come! - A purpose, goal, or aim.
- unknown date DrydenLosing her, the end of living lose.
- unknown date ColeridgeWhen every man is his own end, all things will come to a bad end.
- 1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.21:There is a long argument to prove that foreign conquest is not the end of the State, showing that many people took the imperialist view.
- (cricket) One of the two parts of the ground used as a descriptive name for half of the ground.The Pavillion End
- (American football) The position at the end of either the offensive or defensive line, a tight end, a split end, a defensive end.
- 1926, F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Penguin 2000, p. 11:Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven ....
- (curling) A period of play in which each team throws eight rocks, two per player, in alternating fashion.
- (mathematics) An ideal point of a graph or other complex.
- That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap.odds and ends
- unknown date ShakespeareI clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ,
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil. - One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a Brussels carpet.
Usage notes
Adjectives often used with "end": final, ultimate, deep, happy, etc.
Synonyms
- (final point in space or time) conclusion, limit, terminus, termination
Derived terms
Verb
- (ergative) To finish, terminate.Is this movie never going to end?The lesson will end when the bell rings.The referee blew the whistle to end the game.
- Bible, Genesis ii. 2On the seventh day God ended his work.
- William Shakespeare (1564-1616)I shall end this strife.
- 1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, XLV, lines 7-8:But play the man, stand up and end youWhen your sickness is your soul.
- 2013-11-09, How to stop the fighting, sometimes, Ending civil wars is hard. Hatreds within countries often run far deeper than between them. The fighting rarely sticks to battlefields, as it can do between states. Civilians are rarely spared. And there are no borders to fall back behind.