All 8 Uses

cease
in
A Long Way Gone
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But after a week the stream of refugees from that direction ceased and news dried up.†
p. 15.3 *

ceased = stopped or discontinued
But when we got back to the cooked-food stalls, we were disappointed to find that those who had been selling cassava leaves, okra soup, and potato leaves, all cooked with dried fish and rich palm oil served with rice, had ceased to do so.†
p. 29.4
I had seen heads cut off by machetes, smashed by cement bricks, and rivers filled with so much blood that the water had ceased flowing.†
p. 49.6
The gunshots finally ceased, and the world was very quiet, as if listening.†
p. 93.8
The lieutenant cleared his throat and started speaking in the midst of the cries, which eventually ceased as he went on.†
p. 107.7
So I told her the whole story about how I got shot, not because I really wanted to, but because I thought that if I told her some of the gruesome truth of my war years she would be afraid of me and would cease asking questions.†
p. 155.1

cease = stop or discontinue
The gunfire had ceased and the village was quiet, so I assumed that the attackers had been successfully driven away.†
p. 157.5

ceased = stopped or discontinued
The gunshots didn't cease for the next five months; they became the new sound of the city.†
p. 206.6

cease = stop or discontinue

Definitions:

(1) (cease)
to stop or discontinue
(2) (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.