end

Alternative forms

• ende (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English ende, from Old English ende, from Proto-West Germanic *andī, from Proto-Germanic *andijaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂entíos, from *h₂ent- (“front, forehead”).

See also Dutch einde, German Ende, Norwegian ende, Swedish ände; also Old Irish ét (“end, point”), Latin antiae (“forelock”), Albanian anë (“side”), Ancient Greek ἀντίος (antíos, “opposite”), Sanskrit अन्त्य (antya, “last”). 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.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ĕnd, IPA^(key): /ɛnd/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation); “to end”:

  (file)

• Audio (General American):

  (file)

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• (dialectal, obsolete) enPR: ēnd, IPA^(key): /iːnd/^[1]
• (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /ɪnd/
• Homophone: Ind (pin–pen merger)
• Rhymes: -ɛnd, -ɪnd

Noun

end (plural ends)

1. The terminal point of something in space or time.
   • 1908 October, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC:

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

   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. 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]:

     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 an 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 nearest the kitchen.

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

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

5. Result.
   • 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)]:

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

   • 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)

     The end was that he was thought an archfool.

7. A purpose, goal, or aim.

   For what end should I toil?

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

   Synonym: purpose

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

     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.

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

   The Pavillion End

9. (American football) The position at the end of either the offensive or defensive line, a tight end, a split end, a defensive end.
   • 1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, →OCLC:

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

10. (curling) A period of play in which each team throws eight rocks, two per player, in alternating fashion.
11. (mathematics) An 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

    • 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]:

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

13. One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a Brussels carpet.
14. (in the plural, slang, African-American Vernacular) Money.

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

Verb

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

1. (intransitive, ergative) To come to an end.

   Is this movie never going to end?

   The lesson will end when the bell rings.

2. (intransitive) To conclude; to bring something to an end.

   The orchestra ended with a performance of Dvořák.

3. (transitive) To finish, terminate.

   The referee blew the whistle to end the game.

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

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

   • 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]:

     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.

References

Anagrams

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

Etymology 1

From Proto-Albanian *antis/t, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂n̥t-jes/t (“to plait, weave”).^[1]

Etymology 2

Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂endʰ-. probably from Ancient Greek ἄνθος (ánthos), or from Proto-Albanian *anda^[2]

References

Etymology 1

From Old Norse en, earlier an, probably from Proto-Germanic *þan (“then”), like English than, German denn (“than, for”). For the loss of þ-, compare Old Norse at (“that”) from Proto-Germanic *þat (“that”).

Etymology 2

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

Etymology 3

Etymology

From Middle Dutch ende (“end”) with apocope of the final -e.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛnt/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: end
• Rhymes: -ɛnt

Noun

end n (plural enden, diminutive endje n)

1. (colloquial) Alternative form of eind

   De winkel is daar aan 't end van de weg. ― The shop is there at the end of the road.

   't Is nog een een end vanaf hier. ― There is still a considerable distance to travel from here.

Anagrams

• den

Pronoun

end

1. partitive singular of ise

Etymology 1

From Old English ende.

Etymology 2

From Old English endian.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɛnd/, /ɛn/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛnd, -ɛn
• Hyphenation: end
• Homophone: enn

Verb

end

1. imperative of ende

Anagrams

• den, ned

Verb

end

1. imperative of enda

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /end/

Conjunction

end

1. Alternative form of and

Etymology

From Middle High German ende, from Old High German enti.

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

end n

1. end