end

From Middle English ende, from Old English ende, from Proto-Germanic *andijaz (compare Dutch einde, German Ende, Norwegian ende, Swedish ände), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂entíos (compare Old Irish ét (“end, point”), Latin antiae (“forelock”), Albanian anë (“side”), Ancient Greek ἀντίος (antíos, “opposite”), Sanskrit अन्त्य (antya, “last”)), from *h₂entíos (“front, forehead”). More at and and 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 *andijōną (“to finish, end”), denominative from *andijaz.

• enPR: ĕnd, IPA^(key): /ɛnd/

• Audio (GA)

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• Audio (RP)

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• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ɛnd

end (plural ends)

1. The terminal point of something in space or time.
   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

     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.

   • 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 4, in Mr. Pratt's Patients:

     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.

2. (by extension) The cessation of an effort, activity, state, or motion.

   Is there no end to this madness?

3. (by extension) Death.

   He met a terrible end in the jungle.

   I hope the end comes quickly.

   • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard the Third, Act II, scene i:

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

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

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

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

   Hold the string at both ends.

   My father always sat at the end of the table.

5. Result.
   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Act V, scene i:

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

6. A purpose, goal, or aim.
   • 1675, John Dryden, Aureng-zebe, Act III, scene i:

     But, losing her, the End of Living lose.

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

     When 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.

7. (cricket) One of the two parts of the ground used as a descriptive name for half of the ground.

   The Pavillion End

8. (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, page 11:

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

9. (curling) A period of play in which each team throws eight rocks, two per player, in alternating fashion.
10. (mathematics) An ideal point of a graph or other complex.
11. That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap.

    odds and ends

    • c. 1592, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard the Third, Act I, scene iii:

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

12. One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a Brussels carpet.

• Adjectives often used with "end": final, ultimate, deep, happy, etc.

• (final point in space or time): conclusion, limit, terminus, termination
• See also Thesaurus:goal

• (final point of something): beginning, start

• → Japanese: エンド

end (third-person singular simple present ends, present participle ending, simple past and past participle ended)

1. (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.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), imprinted at London: By Robert Barker, […], OCLC 964384981, Genesis 2:2:

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

   • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice, Act II, scene iii:

     If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife

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

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

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

     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.

• ending
• end up
• never-ending
• unending

• DEN, DNE, Den, Den., NDE, NED, Ned, den, ned

From Proto-Albanian *(h)aunt-, from Proto-Indo-European *h2eu- 'to plait, weave'[1].

end (first-person singular past tense enda, participle endur)

1. to weave

• endem

end (first-person singular past tense endi, participle endur)

1. to bloom

• endë

• Rhymes: -ɛn

From Old Norse enn, from Proto-Germanic *andi, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂entí.

end

1. than (in comparisons)

   Han er venligere end hende.

   He is friendlier than her.

   Han er venligere end hun er.

   He is friendlier than she is.

end

1. imperative of ende

From Middle Dutch ende with apocope of the final -e.

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end n (plural enden, diminutive endje n)

1. end
2. travel distance
   • 1955, Remco Campert, “Vijfhonderd zilverlingen”, in Alle dagen feest, De Bezige Bij:

     De enige bij wie ik nog niet geweest ben, is Alain en die woont in het Quartier Latin en dat is een heel end weg.

     (please add an English translation of this quote)

3. a short length of something (such as a stick or a rope)

• einde
• eind

The form end is more informal than both einde and eind and is mainly used colloquially.

• den

From Old English ende.

end

1. Alternative form of ende

From Old English endian.

end

1. Alternative form of enden

end

1. imperative of ende

end

1. imperative of enda and ende

From Old High German enti, from Proto-Germanic *andijaz.

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end n

1. end

• ofaong