cease and desist

Idioms

Stop, leave off doing something, as in: “Bliss excavated at least once on his own and Dr. Brand ... told him to cease and desist” (Douglas Preston quoting Frank Hibben, The New Yorker, June 12, 1995). This legal term is a redundancy, since cease and desist mean virtually the same thing, but often appears in legal documents to avoid possible misinterpretation. [c. 1920]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

He tells BBC Newsbeat that he expected to receive a cease and desist letter from the retail giant after describing some of the clothes as "boring" and "tacky PE kit".

From BBC

Authorities said the agreement effectively restricted the number of resellers of Apple products on Amazon’s Spanish website and issued a cease and desist order for the companies to amend their contracts.

From The Wall Street Journal

The letter, sent last Friday, marks the first time the MPA has forwarded a cease and desist to a major AI firm, and represents a further escalation of tensions between the entertainment industry and an AI company.

From Los Angeles Times

Studios like Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros. and Netflix are now calling out the Chinese company with cease and desist letters.

From Los Angeles Times

Discovery, Paramount and Disney have all sent individual cease and desist letters, detailing the unauthorized reproduction of each of the studios’ copyrighted intellectual property.

From Los Angeles Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023