Meanings
- idiomaticwithout interruption, without stopping, continuously
These batteries last for hours on end.
1 more example
The arrangement of some seats facing and some one behind the other, bus fashion, seems a sensible compromise; I am one of those who do not enjoy staring at my fellow travellers for perhaps hours on end.
1964 July, Mary Allen, “A Woman's View of the New Coaches”, in Modern Railways, page 9 - datedupright; erect; endways
How silent, on the other hand, lie all Cotton-trades and such like; not a steeple-chimney yet got on end from sea to sea!
1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “chapter 5, ’’Twelfth Century’’”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk)1 more example
When he was dried he struggled into his shirt. Then, ruddy and shiny, with hair on end, and his flannelette shirt hanging over his pit-trousers, he stood warming the garments he was going to put on.
1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 8, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC
Translations
Esperanto hirta
- hirtaupright, erect, endways
German hochkant
- hochkantupright, erect, endways
Polish nonstop
- nonstopcontinuously, long
Russian непреры́вно, подря́д
- непреры́вно (neprerývno)continuously, long
- подря́д (podrjád)continuously, long
- стоймя́ (stojmjá)upright, erect, endways
- ды́бом (dýbom)upright, erect, endways
Spanish y, de canto
- ycontinuously, long
- de cantoupright, erect, endways
Cite this entry
on end. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20end
“on end.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20end. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “on end,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/on%20end.
Source: on end on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.