Edit page | Page history | Printable version

End

1. The extreme or last point or part of any material thing considered lengthwise (the extremity of breadth being side); hence, extremity, in general; the concluding part; termination; close; limit; as, the end of a field, line, pole, road; the end of a year, of a discourse; put an end to pain; opposed to beginning, when used of anything having a first part. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. (Eccl. Vii. 8)

2. Point beyond which no procession can be made; conclusion; issue; result, whether successful or otherwise; conclusive event; consequence. My guilt be on my head, and there an end. (Shak) O that a man might know The end of this day's business ere it come! (Shak)

3. Termination of being; death; destruction; extermination; also, cause of death or destruction. Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end. (Pope) Confound your hidden falsehood, and award either of you to be the other's end. (Shak) I shall see an end of him. (Shak)

4. The object aimed at in any effort considered as the close and effect of exertion; ppurpose; intention; aim; as, to labour for private or public ends. Losing her, the end of living lose. (Dryden) When every man is his own end, all things will come to a bad end. (Coleridge)

5. That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap; as, odds and ends. I clothe my naked villainy With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ, And seem a 957 saint, when most i play the devil. (Shak)

6. One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a brussels carpet. An end. On end; upright; erect; endways. To the end; continuously.

(Science: anatomy) end bulb, one of the two plates of a jewel in a timepiece; the part that limits the pivots end play. Ends of the earth, the remotest regions of the earth. In the end, finally. On end, upright; erect. To the end, in order. To make both ends meet, to live within one's income. To put an end to, to destroy.

Origin: oe. & as. Ende; akin to os. Endi, D. Einde, eind, OHG. Enti, g. Ende, Icel. Endir, endi, Sw. Ande, dan. Ende, goth. Andeis, Skr. Anta. Cf. Ante-, Anti-, answer.