An example of to terminate is to kill a colony of bugs living in a house.
- to bring to an end in space or time; form the end or conclusion of; limit, bound, finish, or conclude
- to put an end to; stop; cease
- ⌂ to dismiss from employment; fire
- ⌂ to assassinate: a euphemistic usage
Origin of terminate; from Classical Latin terminatus, past participle of terminare, to end, limit ; from terminus: see term
- to come to an end in space or time; stop; end
- to have its end (in something): a road terminating in woods
verbter·mi·nat·ed, ter·mi·nat·ing, ter·mi·nates
- To bring to an end or halt: “His action terminated the most hopeful period of reform in Prussian history” (Gordon A. Craig).
- To occur at or form the end of; conclude or finish: a display of fireworks that terminated the festivities. See Synonyms at complete.
- To discontinue the employment of; dismiss: a company that terminated 300 workers.
- To murder or assassinate (someone).
- To come to an end; reach a stopping point: The oil pipeline terminates at a shipping port. The negotiations terminated with a celebration.
- To form an end or produce a result. Often used with in: “The Peloponnesian war &ellipsis; terminated in the ruin of the Athenian commonwealth” (Alexander Hamilton).
Origin of terminateLatin termin&amacron;re, termin&amacron;t-, from terminus, end.
(third-person singular simple present terminates, present participle terminating, simple past and past participle terminated)
- 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.