Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Ending; terminal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Ending; forming an end; lowermost.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective obsolete Ending; forming an end; lowermost.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin desinens, present participle of desinere, desitum, to leave off, cease; de- + sinere to let, allow.

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Examples

  • These are vain, absurd and ridiculous wishes not to be hoped: all must be as it is, [599] Bocchalinus may cite commonwealths to come before Apollo, and seek to reform the world itself by commissioners, but there is no remedy, it may not be redressed, desinent homines tum demum stultescere quando esse desinent, so long as they can wag their beards, they will play the knaves and fools.

    Anatomy of Melancholy 2007

  • We see likewise, after that the state of Rome was not itself, but did degenerate, how that person that took upon him to be counsellor to Julius Caesar after his victory where to begin his restoration of the state, maketh it of all points the most summary to take away the estimation of wealth: Verum haec et omnia mala pariter cum honore pecuniae desinent; si neque magistratus, neque alia vulgo cupienda, venalia erunt.

    The Advancement of Learning 2003

  • We see likewise, after that the state of Rome was not itself, but did degenerate, how that person that took upon him to be counsellor to Julius Caesar after his victory where to begin his restoration of the state, maketh it of all points the most summary to take away the estimation of wealth: Verum haec et omnia mala pariter cum honore pecuniae desinent; si neque magistratus, neque alia vulgo cupienda, venalia erunt.

    The Advancement of Learning Francis Bacon 1593

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