DESIST

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does desist mean? 

• DESIST (verb)
  The verb DESIST has 1 sense:

1. choose not to consume

  Familiarity information: DESIST used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DESIST (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they desist    ... he / she / it desists   
Past simple: desisted   
Past participle: desisted   
-ing form: desisting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Choose not to consume

Classified under:

Verbs of eating and drinking

Synonyms:

abstain; desist; refrain

Context example:

I abstain from alcohol

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "desist"):

fast (abstain from eating)

fast (abstain from certain foods, as for religious or medical reasons)

avoid; keep off (refrain from certain foods or beverages)

teetotal (practice teetotalism and abstain from the consumption of alcoholic beverages)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Somebody ----s VERB-ing

 Context examples 

He tried to make him desist, then swung the axe for him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

It was my first thought to pluck forth the dirk, but either it stuck too hard or my nerve failed me, and I desisted with a violent shudder.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He would not despair: he would not desist.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

From this employment she suddenly desisted, and said to Steerforth, much to my confusion: Who's your friend?

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Scott never desisted from his efforts, though he looked up coolly and asked: Your dog?

(White Fang, by Jack London)

She gathered many of the stones which I built into the walls of the hut; also, she turned a deaf ear to my entreaties when I begged her to desist.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Eliza and Georgiana, evidently acting according to orders, spoke to me as little as possible: John thrust his tongue in his cheek whenever he saw me, and once attempted chastisement; but as I instantly turned against him, roused by the same sentiment of deep ire and desperate revolt which had stirred my corruption before, he thought it better to desist, and ran from me tittering execrations, and vowing I had burst his nose.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"Sorry my hand played out," Martin said, when at last he desisted. "It is quite numb."

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Next Mrs. Crupp said it was clear she couldn't be in two places at once (which I felt to be reasonable), and that a young gal stationed in the pantry with a bedroom candle, there never to desist from washing plates, would be indispensable.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

One Ear was uttering quick, eager whines, lunging at the length of his stick toward the darkness, and desisting now and again in order to make frantic attacks on the stick with his teeth.

(White Fang, by Jack London)