[ad. L. cessātiōn-em, n. of action f. cessāre to CEASE. Practically treated as n. of action from Eng. cease; see -ATION.]
1. Ceasing, discontinuance, stoppage; either permanent or temporary.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst., 107. Withowte cessacion They crye.
1580. North, Plutarch (1676), 985. The Cessation of the Oracles.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 7. The cessation of trafficke with the Mahometans.
1628. Le Grys, trans. Barclay’s Argenis, 128. These are, as it were cessations from Armes, with which sometimes wee doe beguile our common griefs.
1641. Baker, Chron. Hen. VI., an. 1450 (R.). Jack Cade affirming no cessation of arms, unless the King in person would hear the grievances of the subject.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XX. 387. A long cessation of discourse ensu’d.
1748. Anson, Voyage, III. i. 301. The cessation of the storm.
1876. Grant, Burgh Sch. Scotl., II. v. 182. In the ancient records Christmas is religiously coupled with cessation, for a certain time, from work in all the schools, great and small.
† b. ellipt. = Cessation of or from arms (see in prec.): suspension of hostilities; armistice, truce: also in comb. as cessation-breaker. Obs.
1645. King’s Cab. Opened, in Select. Harleian Misc. (1793), 352. All the world knows the eminent inevitable necessity, which caused me to make the Irish cessation.
1653. Holcroft, Procopius, II. vi. 46. They gave Hostages for observing the Cessation.
1736. Carte, Ormonde, II. 285. To join with general Preston for suppressing and reducing the cessation-breakers. Ibid. (1755), Hist. Eng., IV. 479. After the cessation for that county [Cheshire] and Lancashire had been annulled.
† 2. A ceasing to hold office. Obs.
1460. Capgrave, Chron., 272. On Mihelmesse day, the Kyng … red the Act of his Cessacion before these lordis.
1640. Bp. Hall, Episc., II. § 12. If any Bishop … shall there keep him against this decreed Cessation, Let him … be barred from Communion.
† 3. Desistence from action; inactivity, idleness.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, III. x. (1632), 576. They accuse my cessation, when as all the world was convicted of too much doing.
1613. R. C., Table Alph., Cessation, rest, idleness.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 109. The spent Earth may gather heart again; And, better’d by Cessation, bear the Grain.
