-discontinu-

n. 1. The act of discontinuing, or the state of being discontinued; want of continued connection or continuity; breaking off; cessation; interruption; as, a discontinuance of conversation or intercourse; discontinuance of a highway or of travel. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) (a) A breaking off or interruption of an estate, which happened when an alienation was made by a tenant in tail, or other tenant, seized in right of another, of a larger estate than the tenant was entitled to, whereby the party ousted or injured was driven to his real action, and could not enter. This effect of such alienation is now obviated by statute in both England and the United States. (b) The termination of an action in practice by the voluntary act of the plaintiff; an entry on the record that the plaintiff discontinues his action. (c) That technical interruption of the proceedings in pleading in an action, which follows where a defendant does not answer the whole of the plaintiff's declaration, and the plaintiff omits to take judgment for the part unanswered. Wharton's Law Dict. Burrill.

Syn. -- Cessation; intermission; discontinuation; separation; disunion; disjunction; disruption; break. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. discontinuation. ] Breach or interruption of continuity; separation of parts in a connected series; discontinuance. [ 1913 Webster ]

Upon any discontinuation of parts, made either by bubbles or by shaking the glass, the whole mercury falls. Sir I. Newton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To lose continuity or cohesion of parts; to be disrupted or broken off. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To be separated or severed; to part. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thyself shalt discontinue from thine heritage. Jer. xvii. 4. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Discontinued p. pr. & vb. n. Discontinuing. ] [ Cf. F. discontinuer. ] To interrupt the continuance of; to intermit, as a practice or habit; to put an end to; to cause to cease; to cease using, to stop; to leave off. [ 1913 Webster ]

Set up their conventicles again, which had been discontinued. Bp. Burnet. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have discontinued school
Above a twelvemonth. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Taught the Greek tongue, discontinued before in these parts the space of seven hundred years. Daniel. [ 1913 Webster ]

They modify and discriminate the voice, without appearing to discontinue it. Holder. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Law) One whose possession of an estate is broken off, or discontinued; one whose estate is subject to discontinuance. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. One who discontinues, or breaks off or away from; an absentee. [ 1913 Webster ]

He was no gadder abroad, not discontinuer from his convent for a long time. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Want of continuity or cohesion; disunion of parts. “Discontinuity of surface.” Boyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Law) One who deprives another of the possession of an estate by discontinuance. See Discontinuance, 2. [ 1913 Webster ]