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on end. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
on end, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
on end in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Pronunciation
Prepositional phrase
on end
- (idiomatic) without interruption, without stopping, continuously
These batteries last for hours on end.
1964 July, Mary Allen, “A Woman's View of the New Coaches”, in Modern Railways, page 9:The arrangement of some seats facing and some one behind the other, bus fashion, seems a sensible compromise; I am one of those who do not enjoy staring at my fellow travellers for perhaps hours on end.
- (dated) upright; erect; endways
1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “chapter 5, ’’Twelfth Century’’”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book II (The Ancient Monk):How silent, on the other hand, lie all Cotton-trades and such like; not a steeple-chimney yet got on end from sea to sea!
1913, D H Lawrence, chapter 8, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. , →OCLC:When he was dried he struggled into his shirt. Then, ruddy and shiny, with hair on end, and his flannelette shirt hanging over his pit-trousers, he stood warming the garments he was going to put on.
Translations
See also
Further reading
- “on end”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
- “on end”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- “days on end”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “for days weeks etc on end” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
Anagrams