Complete classic literature • Five-line readings • Clear US narration
VELMORA ACADEMY
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finish

verb · noun US /ˈfɪnɪʃ/

come or bring to a finish or an end

How often you will meet it

Rank 2,344 of 71,295 words measured. It occurs 7,392 times across 155,139 chapters — 0.004% of every word in the library.

What it means

verb

  1. come or bring to a finish or an end also: complete He finished the dishesShe completed the requirements for her Master's Degree
  2. finally be or do something also: finish up, land up, fetch up, end up, wind up He ended up marrying his high school sweethearthe wound up being unemployed and living at home again
  3. have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical also: end, stop, terminate, cease the bronchioles terminate in a capillary bedYour rights stop where you infringe upon the rights of other
  4. provide with a finish The carpenter finished the table beautifullythis shirt is not finished properly
  5. finish eating all the food on one's plate or on the table also: eat up, polish off She polished off the remaining potatoes
  6. cause to finish a relationship with somebody That finished me with Mary

noun

  1. a decorative texture or appearance of a surface (or the substance that gives it that appearance) also: coating, finishing the boat had a metallic finishhe applied a coat of a clear finish
  2. the temporal end; the concluding time also: stopping point, finale, finis, last, conclusion, close the stopping point of each round was signaled by a bellthe market was up at the finish

CMU Pronouncing Dictionary · Princeton WordNet 3.1

finish in real books

Each sentence below was written by a published author and is taken from a different book in our library. Open one to read the passage it came from, with narration.

  • Now finish your dinner and do the dishes.

    Polly of Pebbly Pit · Lillian Elizabeth Roy · Chapter 1

  • He pulled hard at the strands in a hurried endeavour to finish his knot.

    The nigger of the "Narcissus" · Joseph Conrad · Chapter 1

  • While it lacks the finish and poise of the two Inaugurals it is far more imaginative than the Debates.

    Lincoln's Inaugurals, Addresses and Letters · Abraham Lincoln · Chapter 1

  • She would soon get well, they said; and she could then go to finish her convalescence in some southern city.

    Other People's Money · Emile Gaboriau · Chapter 1

  • And it took a good many hours from his work and chores for the Toyman to finish IT, whatever IT was.

    Half-Past Seven Stories · Robert Gordon Anderson · Chapter 1

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