- Ends of the earth
- End End ([e^]nd), n. [OE. & AS. ende; akin to OS. endi, D.
einde, eind, OHG. enti, G. ende, Icel. endir, endi, Sw.
["a]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.
[1913 Webster]
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof. --Eccl. vii. 8. [1913 Webster]
2. Point beyond which no procession can be made; conclusion; issue; result, whether successful or otherwise; conclusive event; consequence. [1913 Webster]
My guilt be on my head, and there an end. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
O that a man might know The end of this day's business ere it come! --Shak. [1913 Webster]
3. Termination of being; death; destruction; extermination; also, cause of death or destruction. [1913 Webster]
Unblamed through life, lamented in thy end. --Pope. [1913 Webster]
Confound your hidden falsehood, and award Either of you to be the other's end. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
I shall see an end of him. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
Losing her, the end of living lose. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
When every man is his own end, all things will come to a bad end. --Coleridge. [1913 Webster]
5. That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap; as, odds and ends. [1913 Webster]
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. [1913 Webster]
6. (Carpet Manuf.) One of the yarns of the worsted warp in a Brussels carpet. [1913 Webster]
{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. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.