terminate

Formsterminates, terminating, terminated

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To bring something to a conclusion or final close.

   They agreed to terminate the lengthy debate after midnight.

   The chairman terminated the session with a brief closing remark.

   Similarend, conclude, close, finish

   Oppositebegin, start (entry), open

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To end something, especially while it remains incomplete.

   Mission control decided to terminate the launch seconds before liftoff.

   She terminated the call before the caller could finish.

   Similarend, abort, stop, halt, cancel

   Oppositecontinue, start (entry), begin

   Note

   A verb that could once mean finishing as readily as cutting short. In John Scandrett Harford's The Life of Michael Angelo Buonarroti (1857), the sculptor "terminated two figures of slaves… in an incomparable style of art": he carved them to completion. The word goes back to Latin terminō, "to set bounds to", so ending began as reaching an edge. Today, to terminate a process or an effort usually means it stopped short.

3. 3
   verbintransitive

   To come to an end, conclude, or cease.

   The lease terminates automatically if rent goes unpaid.

   These warranties terminate once the product is resold.

   Similarend, expire, lapse, cease

   Oppositebegin, start (entry), commence

4. 4
   verbtransitive

   To end an employee's employment contract; to fire or lay off.

   The firm terminated her without warning after the merger.

   Employers may terminate staff who repeatedly breach company policy.

   Similarfire, dismiss, sack, discharge

   Oppositehire, employ

5. 5
   verbeuphemistictransitive

   To kill a person, animal, or other living thing.

   Their orders were to terminate the target without leaving evidence.

   The assassin terminated his mark with a single shot.

   Similarkill, eliminate, dispatch

   Note

   Killing described in the vocabulary of procedure. The euphemism works by distance: it turns a death into a task to be closed, as in an order that "the enemy must be terminated by any means possible." That chill is why it suits military orders and thrillers, and why it can sound grimly comic in ordinary talk. Context must rule out the firing sense, since terminating staff only costs them their jobs.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To set or form a limit or boundary to something.

   A sheer cliff terminates the trail at the summit.

   Stone pillars terminate the avenue at either end.

   Similarend, bound

   Note

   Here the word stays closest to its Latin root, terminō, "to set bounds to". Middle English terminaten could already mean to border or confine. The boundary can be the subject, as when a cliff terminates a trail. It can also be the instrument, as in to terminate a surface by a line. Either way nothing is cut short, which sets it apart from the sense of stopping something early.

7. 7
   verbintransitive

   Of a train, bus, or rail line, to end its journey or reach its final stop.

   The express service terminates at the coastal terminus.

   During the works, northbound trains terminate two stops early.

   Similarend, stop

   Oppositeoriginate, start (entry)

   Note

   The station announcer's verb: "This train terminates at the next station" means everyone must get off. It applies to a line as well as a service. H. P. White, writing in Trains Illustrated in 1960, describes a branch that climbs into the Wealden hills until, "apparently exhausted by the effort, it terminates a mile short of the village of Hawkhurst." The place where it ends is the terminus.

8. 8
   verbtransitive

   To finish off a wire, cable, hose, or pipe with an appropriate end fitting, such as a terminal or ferrule.

   The technician terminated the coaxial cable with a crimped plug.

   Always terminate the hose with a proper ferrule to prevent leaks.

   Note

   A word from the installer's working day. Cable or pipe is first roughed in, run to where it will be needed. Terminating comes after, when each end gets its terminal, plug or ferrule so it can connect to equipment. The order shows in the phrase "rough them all in before we start terminating". The object is the wire or hose itself, never the job.

9. 9
   verbintransitive

   To come out or result in something; to issue.

   The investigation terminated in a series of arrests.

   Bitter disputes sometimes terminate in unexpected friendship.

   Similarend, result, culminate

10. 10
    adjective

    Marked off by clear, definite limits, so that its size, shape, or extent is fixed.

    Mountains on the Moon cast shadows that are very dark, terminate and more distinct than those cast by mountains on the Earth.

    Similarbounded, finite, definite, limited

    Oppositeunbounded, infinite, indefinite

    Note

    An adjective with its own history. It comes from Middle English terminat(e), "bounded", which also served as the old past participle of the verb. It describes edges that are sharp rather than blurred: lunar shadows are called "very dark, terminate and more distinct" than Earth's. It compares with more and most (more terminate), and it sits naturally beside distinct or definite in a list.

11. 11
    adjective

    Expressible in a finite number of terms; said of a decimal that ends instead of recurring or running on infinitely.

    One third is a recurring decimal, but one half is a terminate decimal.

    Similarfinite

    Oppositerecurring, repeating

    Note

    Arithmetic's term for a decimal that stops. One half comes out as 0.5 and is finished, while one third repeats its 3 forever and is recurring. Every fraction falls on one side of that pair or the other. Present-day mathematics usually says terminating decimal, so this adjective, the technical edge of the "clearly bounded" adjective, reads as the older form.

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