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Desist vs Insist - What's the difference?

desist | insist |

As verbs the difference between desist and insist

is that desist is to cease to proceed or act; to stop; to forbear; -- often with from while insist is to hold up a claim emphatically.

desist

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To cease to proceed or act; to stop; to forbear; -- often with from .
  • * 1906 , , part I, ch I,
  • One Ear was uttering quick, eager whines, lunging at the length of his stick toward the darkness, and desisting now and again in order to make frantic attacks on the stick with his teeth.

    Anagrams

    *

    insist

    English

    Alternative forms

    * ensist

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To hold up a claim emphatically.
  • (I am defending her; see a similar example in the context below for comparison.)
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=But Miss Thorn relieved the situation by laughing aloud,
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-22, volume=407, issue=8841, page=70, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Engineers of a different kind , passage=Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist . Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.}}
  • To demand continually that something happen or be done.
  • To stand (on); to rest (upon); to lean (upon).
  • * 1709 , Venturus Mandey, Synopsis Mathematica Universalis
  • Angles likewise which insist on the Diameter, are all Right Angles.