end

plural ends · alternative obsolete eend · alternative obsolete ende

1. The terminal point of something in space or time.

   At the end of the garden there was a beautiful fountain.

   5 more examples

   they 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.

   1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC

   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.

   1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC

   An epidemic of the disease started in Lü-shun at the end of 1927 and extended to April 1928, involving 271 cases with 14 deaths (Migai, 1928).

   1946, Tsai-yu Hsiao, Epidemiology of the Diseases of Naval Importance in Manchuria, Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, →OCLC, page 20

   At the end of the story, the main characters fall in love.

   As it was a great play, the audience applauded at the end.

   Synonyms: conclusion, limit, terminus, termination

2. Share of joint responsibility.

   Are you sure they'll honor their end of the deal?

3. broadlyThe cessation of an effort, activity, state, or motion.

   Is there no end to this madness?

   1 more example

   The new electronic switching system means expanded service and an end to irritances such as cross-talk, line-hum, and being cut off in mid-conversation.

   1986, The Army Communicator, volume 11, number 2, page 46

4. broadlyoftenwith definite articleDeath.

   I hope the end comes quickly.

   4 more examples

   He met a terrible end in the jungle.

   Confound your hidden falsehood, and award / Either of you to be the other's end.

   c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

   A safe companion and an easy friend / Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end.

   1732, Alexander Pope, (epitaph) On Mr. Gay, in Westminster Abbey

   Regulators and developers should consider the privacy risks. But more than anything, Sparrow thinks we should all reflect on how we prepare for the end. “My mother has late-stage cancer, she’s clearly thinking about her own death, and so she is going through a process of throwing out all the things she doesn’t want the kids to deal with and prepping her house,” he says.

   2025 March 5, Patricia Clarke, “You and me, we gonna live forever … as avatars, at least”, in The Observer

5. The most extreme point of an object, especially one that is longer than it is wide.

   Hold the string at both ends.

   2 more examples

   My father always sat at the end of the table nearest the kitchen.

   All the ends of the woꝛld ſhall remember, and turne vnto the Lord: and all the kinreds of the nations ſhall woꝛſhip befoꝛe thee.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms 22:27

6. Result.

   The end was that he was thought an archfool.

   1876, Great Britain. Public Record Office, John Sherren Brewer, Robert Henry Brodie, James Gairdner, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIII (volume 4, issue 3, part 2, page 3154)

   1 more example

   O that a man might know / The end of this day's business ere it come!

   1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, (please specify the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals)]

7. A purpose, goal, or aim.

   For what end should I toil?

   4 more examples

   The end of our club is to advance conversation and friendship.

   But, losing her, the End of Living lose.

   1675, John Dryden, chapter III, in Aureng-zebe: A Tragedy. […], London: […] T[homas] N[ewcomb] for Henry Herringman, […], published 1676, →OCLC

   When every man is his own end, all things will come to a bad end.

   1825, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Aids to Reflection in the Formation of a Manly Character, Aphorism VI, page 146

   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.

   1946, Bertrand Russell, History of Western Philosophy, I.21

   Synonyms: purpose

8. ball gamesOne of the two parts of the ground used as a descriptive name for half of the ground.

   The Pavillion End

9. American footballThe position at the end of either the offensive or defensive line, a tight end, a split end, a defensive end.

   Her husband, among various physical accomplishments, had been one of the most powerful ends that ever played football at New Haven […].

   1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN

10. ball gamesA period of play in which each team throws eight rocks, two per player, in alternating fashion.
11. mathematicsAn ideal point of a graph or other complex. See End (graph theory)
12. That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap.

    odds and ends

    1 more example

    I clothe my naked villainy / With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ, / And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

    c. 1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]

13. businessA single warp thread.

    Wind a warp of 459 ends 3¾ yd long, following the warp color order in Figure 1.

    2026, Shelby Moravec, “Flight of the Dragonflies Scarf”, in Handwoven, volume XLVII, number 1, page 28

14. in pluralslangAfrican-American VernacularMoney.

    Don't give them your ends. You jack that shit!

present singular third person ends · participle present ending · participle past ended · past ended · alternative obsolete eend · alternative obsolete ende

1. ergativeintransitiveTo come to an end.

   Is this movie never going to end?

   2 more examples

   The lesson will end when the bell rings.

   The canyon ends abruptly on the east side of Roraima, and here a waterfall pours over an outcropping of crystal.

   1989 May, Uwe George, “Venezuela's Islands in Time”, in National Geographic, volume 175, number 5, page 542

2. intransitiveTo conclude; to bring something to an end.

   The orchestra ended with a performance of Dvořák.

3. transitiveTo finish, terminate.

   The referee blew the whistle to end the game.

   5 more examples

   And on the seventh day God ended his worke[…]

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 2:2

   If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]

   But play the man, stand up and end you, / When your sickness is your soul.

   1896, A. E. Housman, A Shropshire Lad, XLV, lines 7-8

   So, subject to the salvaging of serviceable parts, all five were withdrawn for breaking up in 1936-7, and thus ended one of the shortest histories of an important locomotive class on record.

   1949 May and June, R. A. H. Weight, “A Short-Lived Pacific Class”, in Railway Magazine, page 196

   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.

   2013 November 9, “How to stop the fighting, sometimes”, in The Economist, volume 409, number 8861

plural Ends

1. A key that when pressed causes the cursor to go to the last character of the current line.

plural ENDs

1. abbreviationacronymdivingAcronym of equivalent narcotic depth.