from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
End \End\ ([e^]nd), n. [OE. & AS. ende; akin to OS. endi, D.
einde, eind, OHG. enti, G. ende, Icel. endir, endi, Sw.
[aum]nde, Dan. ende, Goth. andeis, Skr. anta. [root]208. Cf.
{Ante-}, {Anti-}, {Answer}.]
1. The extreme or last point or part of any material thing
considered lengthwise (the extremity of breadth being
side); hence, extremity, in general; the concluding part;
termination; close; limit; as, the end of a field, line,
pole, road; the end of a year, of a discourse; put an end
to pain; -- opposed to {beginning}, when used of anything
having a first part.
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Better is the end of a thing than the beginning
thereof. --Eccl. vii.
8.
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2. Point beyond which no procession can be made; conclusion;
issue; result, whether successful or otherwise; conclusive
event; consequence.
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My guilt be on my head, and there an end. --Shak.
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O that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come! --Shak.
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3. Termination of being; death; destruction; extermination;
also, cause of death or destruction.
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Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end. --Pope.
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Confound your hidden falsehood, and award
Either of you to be the other's end. --Shak.
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I shall see an end of him. --Shak.
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4. The object aimed at in any effort considered as the close
and effect of exertion; ppurpose; intention; aim; as, to
labor for private or public ends.
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Losing her, the end of living lose. --Dryden.
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When every man is his own end, all things will come
to a bad end. --Coleridge.
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5. That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap; as,
odds and ends.
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I clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ,
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
--Shak.
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6. (Carpet Manuf.) One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a
Brussels carpet.
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{An end}.
(a) On end; upright; erect; endways. --Spenser
(b) To the end; continuously. [Obs.] --Richardson.
{End bulb} (Anat.), one of the bulblike bodies in which some
sensory nerve fibers end in certain parts of the skin and
mucous membranes; -- also called {end corpuscles}.
{End fly}, a bobfly.
{End for end}, one end for the other; in reversed order.
{End man}, the last man in a row; one of the two men at the
extremities of a line of minstrels.
{End on} (Naut.), bow foremost.
{End organ} (Anat.), the structure in which a nerve fiber
ends, either peripherally or centrally.
{End plate} (Anat.), one of the flat expansions in which
motor nerve fibers terminate on muscular fibers.
{End play} (Mach.), movement endwise, or room for such
movement.
{End stone} (Horol.), one of the two plates of a jewel in a
timepiece; the part that limits the pivot's end play.
{Ends of the earth}, the remotest regions of the earth.
{In the end}, finally. --Shak.
{On end}, upright; erect.
{To the end}, in order. --Bacon.
{To make both ends meet}, to live within one's income.
--Fuller.
{To put an end to}, to destroy.
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