discontinue

English

Etymology

From Old French descontinuer.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɪskənˈtɪnju/

• Audio (US)

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Verb

discontinue (third-person singular simple present discontinues, present participle discontinuing, simple past and past participle discontinued)

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

   They plan to discontinue that design.

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     I have discontinued school
     Above a twelvemonth.

   • 1603, Samuel Daniel, A Defence of Rime:

     Taught the Greek tongue, discontinued before in these parts the space of seven hundred years.

   • 1669, William Holder, Elements of Speech:

     They modify and discriminate the voice, without appearing to discontinue it.

   • 1946 January and February, “Notes and News: Demolition of Rhydyfelin Viaduct”, in Railway Magazine, page 52:

     Passenger traffic was subsequently discontinued, and early in the recent war a considerable amount of the permanent way at the Treforest end of the railway was taken up.

   • 2019 July 3, Mike D'Angelo, “Oscar Isaac and Ben Affleck blunder through a heavy heist in J.C. Chandor’s Triple Frontier”, in AV Club‎:

     Exactly 50 years ago, the U.S. Federal Reserve, which had previously issued bills with values as high as $10,000, made it all about the Benjamins. Every bill more valuable than $100 was officially discontinued. (They’d stopped being printed decades earlier, but many had kept circulating.)

   • 2023 March 8, Gareth Dennis, “The Reshaping of things to come...”, in RAIL, number 978, page 47:

     Beeching concludes, rather brutally, that "a high proportion of stopping passenger train services ought to be discontinued as soon as possible... and as soon as procedure permits".

2. (transitive) To consciously cease the ingestion or administration of (a pharmaceutical drug).
   • 1989 April 8, Judy Harris, “Fenway to Administer Peptide T”, in Gay Community News, page 3:

     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.

Synonyms

• break off
• terminate

Antonyms

• continue

Translations

See also

• deprecate

French

Adjective

discontinue

1. feminine singular of discontinu

Italian

Adjective

discontinue

1. feminine plural of discontinuo