Surcease

surcease







Y

D



–verb (used without object) 

1. to cease from some action; desist.

2. to come to an end. 



–verb (used with object) 

3. Archaic. to cease from; leave off. 



–noun 

4. cessation; end. 





C



surcease (n., v.) 

 

The verb (meaning "to stop or delay") is usually considered archaic, but the noun (meaning "respite, end, or a stopping or relief from") occurs quite regularly in Edited English of a Formal, literary kind. 



In Informal writing and at Conversational levels, it may seem affected or stiff. 





　

By the second act, which takes place six months after the first, Franz and Leo have settled into the tedium and petty power struggles of a long-term relationship. 



The apartment, which had seemed a den of erotic mystery, has become a prison of middle-class luxury. Leo's predatory charm has given way to bullying truculence and Franz's naivete has turned into ditziness. 



Their sexual attraction persists, offering at once surcease from their domestic warfare and a chance to carry it out by other means. 





quandary 

stalemate

quagmire

slough 

bog

We were bogged [down] by overwork. 

Godard, it was said, had lost the light touch of his first film and gotten bogged [down] in politics.

moor

heath

molasses

morass

trying to survive but instead sinking deeper and [deeper] into the [morass] of poverty.

puddle

The [children] were puddling. 

the [splash] of her shoes in a [sun]-flashing puddle



gridlock

[Traffic] has gridlocked.

impasse

This impasse leaves the gray old men of the Resistance in a [perpetual] state of ineffective [squabbling]

doldrums

a state of inactivity or stagnation, as in business or art

[August] is a time of doldrums for many enterprises. 

"Kicking and Screaming" also sends Otis and Skippy through minor postgrad [doldrums]. 

Kimberly Peirce [paints] an unforgettable portrait of small-town [doldrums] and gender identity crisis, using the [harrowing] tale of Teena Brandon,



clog

I unclogged your drain. The water's drain is good now.

Stagnation