Discontinue

//dɪskənˈtɪnju// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To interrupt the continuance of; to put an end to, especially as regards commercial productions; to stop producing, making, or supplying. transitive

    "They plan to discontinue that design."

  2. 2
    put an end to a state or an activity wordnet
  3. 3
    To consciously cease the ingestion or administration of (a pharmaceutical drug). transitive

    "AZT, the only AIDS treatment fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is extremely toxic, and many people with AIDS cannot cake it or must discontinue taking it after some period of time."

  4. 4
    come to or be at an end wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
breakbreak offbreak offterminateabandonabjure

Example

More examples

"McDonald's will discontinue the use of boneless lean beef trimmings in their hamburgers."

Etymology

From Old French descontinuer, equivalent to dis- + continue.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.