conclude

English

Etymology

From Middle English concluden, borrowed from Latin conclūdere (“to shut up, close, end”), present active infinitive of conclūdō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kən.ˈkluːd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːd

Verb

conclude (third-person singular simple present concludes, present participle concluding, simple past and past participle concluded)

1. (intransitive) To end; to come to an end.

   The story concluded with a moral.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling:

     He inveighed against the folly of making oneself liable for the debts of others; vented many bitter execrations against the brother; and concluded with wishing something could be done for the unfortunate family.

2. (transitive) To bring to an end; to close; to finish.
   • a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a VVarre vvith Spaine. ”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany VVorks of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. , London: I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, , published 1629, →OCLC:

     I will conclude this part with the speech of a counsellor of state.

3. (transitive) To bring about as a result; to effect; to make.

   to conclude a bargain

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     if we conclude a peace

4. (transitive) To come to a conclusion, to a final decision.

   From the evidence, I conclude that this man was murdered.

   • a. 1694, John Tillotson, The Advantages of Religion to Societies:

     No man can certainly conclude God's love or hatred to any person by anything that befalls him.

5. (obsolete) To make a final determination or judgment concerning; to judge; to decide.
   • 1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses:

     But no frail man, however great or high, / Can be concluded blest before he die.

6. To shut off; to restrain; to limit; to estop; to bar; generally in the passive.

   The defendant is concluded by his own plea.

   A judgment concludes the introduction of further evidence.

   • a. 1677 (date written), Matthew Hale, The Primitive Origination of Mankind, Considered and Examined According to the Light of Nature, London: William Godbid, for William Shrowsbery, , published 1677, →OCLC:

     If therefore they will appeal to revelation for their creation they must be concluded by it.

7. (obsolete) To shut up; to enclose.
   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, , London: Will Stansby , published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     The very person of Christ [was] concluded within the grave.

8. (obsolete) To include; to comprehend; to shut up together; to embrace; to confine.
   • 1601, Ben Jonson, The Poetaster, act IV, scene VIII originally but scene VII in Gifford’s 1816 edition volume II, page 493:

     Banisht the Court? Let me be banisht Life;
     Since the chief end of Life is there concluded:
     Within the Court is all the Kingdom bounded,
     And as her sacred Sphear doth comprehend
     Ten thousand times so much, as so much Place
     In any part of all the Empire else;
     So every Body, moving in her Sphear,
     Contains Ten thousand times as much in him,
     As any other, her choice Orb excludes.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Romans 11:32:

     For God hath concluded all in unbelief.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible,  (King James Version), London: Robert Barker, , →OCLC, Galatians 3:22:

     The Scripture hath concluded all under sin.

9. (logic) to deduce, to infer (develop a causal relation)

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of "to end"): begin, initiate, start, commence

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Italian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /konˈklu.de/
• Rhymes: -ude
• Hyphenation: con‧clù‧de

Verb

conclude

1. third-person singular present indicative of concludere

Latin

Verb

conclūde

1. second-person singular present active imperative of conclūdō

Piedmontese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kuŋˈklyde/

Verb

conclude

1. to conclude

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin concludere or Italian concludere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /konˈklu.de/

Verb

a conclude (third-person singular present conclude, past participle conclus) 3rd conj.

1. to conclude

Conjugation

Further reading

• conclude in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)