Other forms: ceased, ceasing, ceases
To cease is the formal word for to stop or end an activity. Cease trading, cease fire, the noise ceased.
It is uncommon in speech and standard in official writing and law: cease and desist, cease operations, ceased to exist. It takes to or -ing: ceased to publish, ceased publishing. Ceasefire is the fixed compound for an agreement to stop fighting. Note without cease, meaning continuously; never cease to amaze me, which is a set phrase; and deceased, which is the formal word for somebody who has died.
cease is a stopping.
Also accepted in games: stop
Latin cessare means to leave off, from cedere, to yield or go away — the same verb behind concede, recede and proceed. Cease and cede are the same word, one through French and one direct from Latin.
Latin
cessō
Middle French
cesser
Middle English
cesen
English, today
cease
Built from
From Middle English cesen, from Middle French cesser, from Latin cessō. From Middle English cesen, cessen, from Middle French cesser (“to cease”), from Latin cessō (“leave off”), frequentative of cēdō (“to leave off, go away”). Compare secede.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA