verb
End, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ended; p. pr. & vb. n. Ending.]
1. To bring to an end or conclusion; to finish; to close; to terminate; as, to end a speech. "I shall end this strife." Shak. On the seventh day God ended his work. Gen. ii. 2.
2. To form or be at the end of; as, the letter k ends the word back.
3. To destroy; to put to death. "This sword hath ended him." Shak. To end up, to lift or tilt, so as to set on end; as, to end up a hogshead.
2 other Webster entries under this spelling
End, n.
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 Ant: beginning, when used of anything having a first part. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. Eccl. vii. 8.
2. Point beyond which no procession can be made; conclusion; issue; result, whether successful or otherwise; conclusive event; consequence. My guilt be on my head, and there an end. Shak. O that a man might know The end of this day's business ere it come! Shak.
3. Termination of being; death; destruction; extermination; also, cause of death or destruction. Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end. Pope. Confound your hidden falsehood, and award Either of you to be the other's end. Shak. I shall see an end of him. Shak.
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. Losing her, the end of living lose. Dryden. When every man is his own end, all things will come to a bad end. Coleridge.
5. That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap; as, odds and ends. 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.
6. (Carpet Manuf.)
One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a Brussels carpet.
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.
End, v. i.
To come to the ultimate point; to be finished; to come to a close; to cease; to terminate; as, a voyage ends; life ends; winter ends.
Shades of meaning
That ends, or is ended, of which there is no more, whether or not more was intended or needed; that is closed, completed, concluded, or finished which has come to an expected or appropriate end. A speech may be ended almost as soon as begun, because of the speaker's illness, or of tumult in the audience; in such a case, the speech is neither closed, completed, nor finished, nor, in the strict sense, concluded. An argument may be closed with nothing proved; when an argument is concluded all that is deemed necessary to prove the point has been stated. To finish is to do the last thing there is to do; as, "I have finished my course," 2 Tim. iv, 7. Finish has come to mean, not merely to complete in the essentials, but to perfect in all the minute details, as in the expression "to add the finishing touches." The enumeration is completed; the poem, the picture, the statue is finished. To terminate may be either to bring to an arbitrary or to an appropriate end; as, he terminated his remarks abruptly; the spire terminates in a cross. A thing stops that comes to rest from motion; or the motion stops or ceases when the object comes to rest; stop frequently signifies to bring or come to a sudden and decided cessation of motion, progress, or action of any kind. Compare DO; transact.