surcease

From Anglo-Norman surseser, from Old French sursis, past participle of surseoir, from Latin supersedere. Spelling later influenced by association with unrelated cease.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /səˈsiːs/, /ˈsɜːˌsiːs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɝˌsis/, /səɹˈsis/
• Rhymes: -iːs

surcease (countable and uncountable, plural surceases)

1. Cessation; stop; end.
   • 1589, Francis Bacon, An advertisment touchinge the controversies of the Church of England, in Frank J. Burgoyne (editor), Northumberland Manuscripts, London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1904, p. 36,

     And first of all, it is more then time, there were an ende and surcease made of this immodest and deformed manner of writting latelie entertained, whereby matter of religion is handled in the stile of the stage.

   • c. 1605, William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I, Scene 7,

     It it were done when ’tis done, then ’twere well

     It were done quickly: if the assassination

     Could trammel up the consequence, and catch

     With his surcease success;

   • 1845, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Raven,”

     Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
     And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
     Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow
     From my books surcease of sorrow — sorrow for the lost Lenore —
     For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore —
     Nameless here for evermore.

   • 1875, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Morituri Salutamus” in The Masque of Pandora, and Other Poems, Boston: James R. Osgood, p. 90,

     […] old age is still old age.

     It is the waning, not the crescent moon,

     The dusk of evening, not the blaze of noon:

     It is not strength, but weakness; not desire,

     But its surcease; not the fierce heat of fire,

     The burning and consuming element,

     But that of ashes and of embers spent […]

   • 1910, William Dean Howells, My Mark Twain: Reminiscences and Criticisms, New York: Harper & Bros., Chapter 6, p. 23,

     […] the time came when he sickened of the whole affair, and withdrew his agent, and took whatever gain from it the actor apportioned him. He was apt to have these sudden surceases, following upon the intensities of his earlier interest […]

   • 1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, Bantam Books, pg. 217:

     For the individual who wishes to live in his time, to be a part of the future, the super-industrial revolution offers no surcease from change.

surcease (third-person singular simple present surceases, present participle surceasing, simple past and past participle surceased)

1. (intransitive) To come to an end; to desist.
   • c. 1594, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act IV, Scene 1,

     […] this distilled liquor drink thou off;

     When presently through all thy veins shall run

     A cold and drowsy humour, for no pulse

     Shall keep his native progress, but surcease:

   • 1899, Zénaïde A. Ragozin, Frithjof, The Viking of Norway in Frithjof, The Viking of Norway and Roland, The Paladin of France, Tales of the Heroic Ages, New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, Chapter 9, p. 67,

     And instantly the storm surceases, the heavens clear, the sun comes forth in splendour, as a king entering the audience-hall, and sheds the glory of his presence over ship and sea and land.

2. (transitive) To bring to an end.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, Hackett, 2006, Book III, Canto Four, Stanza 31, p. 79,

     The waves obedient to theyr beheast,

     Them yielded ready passage, and their rage surceast.

   • 1697, John Dryden, (translator), Virgil’s Æneis, Book 12, lines 1024-1025, in The Works of Virgil, Volume 3, 5th edition, London: Jacob Tonson, 1721, p. 985,

     The Nations, over-aw’d, surcease the Fight,

     Immoveable their Bodies, fix’d their Sight:

• assecure