All 7 Uses of
cease
in
The Lovely Bones
- Ruth sat almost motionless, right leg crossed over left, but her foot jiggled ceaselessly.†
Chpt 10ceaselessly = 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.
- And then as quickly as the rain had started, it ceased.†
Chpt 10 *ceased = stopped or discontinued
- He asked ceaseless questions about the "fake knee," and my father warmed to him.†
Chpt 13ceaseless = never-endingstandard suffix: The suffix "-less" in ceaseless means without and reverses the meaning of cease. This is the same pattern you see in words like harmless, fearless, and powerless.
- When the noise ceased her ears rang for a second, and in that second she saw something flicker across Ray's eyes.†
Chpt 16ceased = stopped or discontinued
- I wondered if Lindsey noticed that when she and Samuel began to unzip their leathers the lightning stopped and the rumble in the throat of God—that scary thunder—ceased.†
Chpt 17
- It never ceased to hurt.†
Chpt 18
- But though she was, by definition, a mother, she had at some point ceased to be one too.†
Chpt 19
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.