Both Uses of
cease
in
Not Without My Daughter
- My ears alert for any sound of trouble, my arms aching as I held my daughter close, my head spinning with unceasing prayer, I awaited my last moment, impotent against the rage of my demented husband.†
unceasing = not stopping or discontinuingstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unceasing means not and reverses the meaning of ceasing. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- In this mountainous land any sound echoed like a rifle blast, and would alert the wary pasdar who patrolled ceaselessly.†
*ceaselessly = in a manner that does not stopstandard suffix: The suffix "-less" in ceaselessly means without. This is the same pattern you see in words like fearless, homeless, and endless.
Definitions:
-
(1)
(cease) to stop or discontinue
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
Note that the expression, cease fire means to stop doing battle such as firing funs at each other. Similarly, the noun, cease-fire, is a state of having stopped doing battle.