discontinue

From Old French descontinuer.

• IPA^(key): /dɪskənˈtɪnju/

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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[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act III, scene iv]:

     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.)

2. (transitive) To consciously cease the ingestion or administration of (a pharmaceutical drug).

• break off
• terminate

• continue

• deprecate

discontinue

1. feminine singular of discontinu

discontinue

1. feminine plural of discontinuo