Etymology From Middle English cesen, cessen, from Middle French cesser (“to cease”), from Latin cessō (“leave off”), frequentative of cēdō (“to leave off, go away”). Compare secede.
Obsolete To be wanting; to fail; to pass away, perish.
The poor shall never cease out of the land.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 15:11:
[...] wherefore ceaſe we then? / Say they who counſel Warr, we are decreed, / Reſerv'd and deſtin'd to Eternal woe;1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 159-161:
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’Twere best at once to sink to peace, Like birds the charming serpent draws, To drop head-foremost in the jaws Of vacant darkness and to cease.1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XXXIV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 53:
Etymology From Middle English cesen, cessen, from Middle French cesser (“to cease”), from Latin cessō (“leave off”), frequentative of cēdō (“to leave off, go away”). Compare secede.
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Obsolete Cessation; extinction (see without cease).
the cease of majestyc. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]: