# terminate
## English
### Etymology 1

From Middle English terminaten (“to bring to an end; to adjudicate; to end, stop; to border, confine, contain”) from terminat(e) (“bounded”, also used as the past participle of terminaten) +‎ -en (verb-forming suffix), borrowed from Latin terminātus, perfect passive participle of terminō (“to set bounds to, bound, limit, end, close, terminate”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix)), from terminus (“a bound, limit, end”) + -ō (verb-forming suffix); see term, terminus. Doublet of termine, cognate with French terminer.

#### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ˈtɝmɪneɪt/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈtɜːmɪneɪt/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Hyphenation: ter‧mi‧nate

#### Verb

terminate (third-person singular simple present terminates, present participle terminating, simple past and past participle terminated)
* (transitive) To end something, especially when left in an incomplete state.
    to terminate a process before its completion
    to terminate an effort, or a controversy
** 1857, John Scandrett Harford, The Life of Michael Angelo Buonarroti:During this interval of calm and prosperity, he terminated two figures of slaves, destined for the tomb, in an incomparable style of art.
* (transitive) To conclude.
* (transitive) To set or be a limit or boundary to.
    to terminate a surface by a line
* (transitive) To form an appropriate end on (a wire, cable, hose, pipe, etc), such as by applying a cable terminal or a hose ferrule.
    We'll rough them all in before we start terminating any of them.
* (transitive) To end the employment contract of an employee; to fire, lay off.
* (transitive, euphemistic) To kill someone or something.
    The enemy must be terminated by any means possible.
* (intransitive) To end, conclude, or cease; to come to an end.
** 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 102:She unlocked the casket which contained her mother's picture, and gazed even more earnestly than usual on that beautiful face; its frank, glad smile was too painful; it seemed an omen of all that could make a joyous and beloved existence; and yet how had her's terminated!
* (intransitive) Of a mode of transport, to end its journey; or, of a railway line, to reach its terminus.
    This train terminates at the next station.
** 1960 March, H. P. White, “The Hawkhurst branch of the Southern Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 170:It is a branch that climbs for 11½ miles into the picturesque Wealden hills until, apparently exhausted by the effort, it terminates a mile short of the village of Hawkhurst.
** 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 67:After dropping off travellers at Foregate Street, my train terminates at Shrub Hill - a station which boasts one of the best selection [sic] of semaphore signals left in the country.
* (intransitive) To issue or result.

##### Synonyms

* (to end incompletely): discontinue, stop, break off
* (to kill): See also Thesaurus:kill
* (to end the employment contract): axe, fire, sack; see also Thesaurus:lay off

##### Antonyms

* (antonym(s) of “to end incompletely”): continue

##### Derived terms

* self-terminate
* terminate with extreme prejudice
* thought-terminating cliché

##### Related terms

* terminable
* termination
* terminator
* terminus

##### See also

* abort

### Etymology 2

From Middle English terminat(e) (“bounded”, also used as the past participle of terminaten), see -ate (adjective-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more.

#### Pronunciation

* (General American) IPA: /ˈtɝmɪnət/
* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈtɜːmɪnət/
* Hyphenation: ter‧mi‧nate

#### Adjective

terminate (comparative more terminate, superlative most terminate)
* Terminated; limited; bounded; ended.
* Having a definite and clear limit or boundary; having a determinate size, shape or magnitude.
    Mountains on the Moon cast shadows that are very dark, terminate and more distinct than those cast by mountains on the Earth.
* (mathematics) Expressible in a finite number of terms; (of a decimal) not recurring or infinite.
    One third is a recurring decimal, but one half is a terminate decimal.

##### Translations
### References

* John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “terminate”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.

### Further reading

* “terminate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “terminate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “terminate”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Anagrams

* Marinette, antimeter, intermate, interteam, tetramine, tretamine

## Italian
### Etymology 1
#### Verb

terminate
* inflection of terminare:
** second-person plural present indicative/subjunctive
** second-person plural imperative

### Etymology 2
#### Participle

terminate f pl
* feminine plural of terminato

### Anagrams

* attenermi, meritante

## Latin
### Verb

termināte
* second-person plural present active imperative of terminō

### References

* “terminate”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press

## Spanish
### Verb

terminate
* second-person singular voseo imperative of terminar combined with te