[syn: ultimately, finally, in the end, at last, at long last]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
End \End\ ([e^]nd), n. [OE. & AS. ende; akin to OS. endi, D.
einde, eind, OHG. enti, G. ende, Icel. endir, endi, Sw.
[aum]nde, Dan. ende, Goth. andeis, Skr. anta. [root]208. Cf.
Ante-, Anti-, Answer.]
1. The extreme or last point or part of any material thing
considered lengthwise (the extremity of breadth being
side); hence, extremity, in general; the concluding part;
termination; close; limit; as, the end of a field, line,
pole, road; the end of a year, of a discourse; put an end
to pain; -- opposed to beginning, when used of anything
having a first part.
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Better is the end of a thing than the beginning
thereof. --Eccl. vii.
8.
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2. Point beyond which no procession can be made; conclusion;
issue; result, whether successful or otherwise; conclusive
event; consequence.
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My guilt be on my head, and there an end. --Shak.
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O that a man might know
The end of this day's business ere it come! --Shak.
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3. Termination of being; death; destruction; extermination;
also, cause of death or destruction.
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Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end. --Pope.
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Confound your hidden falsehood, and award
Either of you to be the other's end. --Shak.
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I shall see an end of him. --Shak.
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4. The object aimed at in any effort considered as the close
and effect of exertion; ppurpose; intention; aim; as, to
labor for private or public ends.
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Losing her, the end of living lose. --Dryden.
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When every man is his own end, all things will come
to a bad end. --Coleridge.
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5. That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap; as,
odds and ends.
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I clothe my naked villainy
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ,
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
--Shak.
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6. (Carpet Manuf.) One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a
Brussels carpet.
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An end.
(a) On end; upright; erect; endways. --Spenser
(b) To the end; continuously. [Obs.] --Richardson.
End bulb (Anat.), one of the bulblike bodies in which some
sensory nerve fibers end in certain parts of the skin and
mucous membranes; -- also called end corpuscles.
End fly, a bobfly.
End for end, one end for the other; in reversed order.
End man, the last man in a row; one of the two men at the
extremities of a line of minstrels.
End on (Naut.), bow foremost.
End organ (Anat.), the structure in which a nerve fiber
ends, either peripherally or centrally.
End plate (Anat.), one of the flat expansions in which
motor nerve fibers terminate on muscular fibers.
End play (Mach.), movement endwise, or room for such
movement.
End stone (Horol.), one of the two plates of a jewel in a
timepiece; the part that limits the pivot's end play.
Ends of the earth, the remotest regions of the earth.
In the end, finally. --Shak.
On end, upright; erect.
To the end, in order. --Bacon.
To make both ends meet, to live within one's income.
--Fuller.
To put an end to, to destroy.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
in the end
adv 1: after a very lengthy period of time; "she will succeed in
the long run" [syn: in the long run, in the end]
2: as the end result of a succession or process; "ultimately he
had to give in"; "at long last the winter was over" [syn:
ultimately, finally, in the end, at last, at long
last]