Ending: English Vocabulary List

the last important thing that a person does before their retirement or death

"The concert was her swan song."

"The concert was her swan song before retiring from music after forty years of performing."

(of any finite resource) to be completely or nearly finished

"The food is all up."

"With no food left and the storm raging, it seemed like it was all up with them."

to cause something to fail in achieving any success or fulfilling any expectation

"Rain brought plans naught."

"The unexpected frost brought the entire harvest to naught, disappointing the farmers greatly."

to completely fail to achieve any success or fulfill one's expectation

"Efforts came to naught."

"Despite their extensive preparations, all their efforts to secure the contract came to naught."

to stop working or participating in an activity, usually at the end of the day or when one feels that they have done enough

"Let's call it a day."

"After a long and productive meeting, the team decided to call it a day."

to decide to put an end to something by dealing with it

"Draw a line under this."

"After the argument, we decided to draw a line under the past."

used to say that a person has definitely left an activity or place and will not change their mind about it

"He has left building."

"She's made her decision and has left the building; there's no persuading her now."

to prove to someone that what they believe in or think about is not true

"Put this to rest."

"The new evidence will finally put the long-standing rumors about the incident to rest."

to prevent the occurrence or continuation of an activity

"They pulled the plug."

"The investors decided to pull the plug on the failing project after it lost millions of dollars."

to make something end, particularly by ruining what was planned

"Rain put paid to picnic."

"The unexpected budget cuts put paid to our ambitious expansion plans for this year."

to prevent something from happening or making more progress

"Put the brakes on."

"The government had to put the brakes on the rapidly increasing national debt."

to put a sudden stop to something one was doing for some time

"Give it a rest."

"After working on the project for twelve hours straight, he decided to give his tired eyes a rest."

to accept the fact that one has lost something and might never be able to get it back

"Kiss money goodbye."

"When the stock market crashed, many investors had to kiss their savings goodbye."

to decide that it is impossible to help something succeed because there seems to be no hope

"Give up project."

"After weeks of trying to fix the old car, he finally gave it up as a bad job."

to prepare oneself for death, dismissal, etc.

"Kiss your job goodbye."

"If you miss another deadline, you can kiss your job goodbye."

to put an end to something, particularly something bad, that has been going on for some time

"Close the book on this."

"After years of investigation, the police decided to close the book on the unsolved case."

something that does not exist or happen anymore due to being replaced by something more modern or desirable

"That is a thing of the past."

"With the invention of smartphones paper maps have become a thing of the past for most travellers."

to remove or destroy someone or something completely

"Wipe them off the map."

"The invading army threatened to wipe the entire city off the face of the earth."

(of a quality, idea, or principle) to not longer exist or be forgotten

"Hope went out the window."

"Once the initial excitement faded, all their good intentions seemed to go out the window."

(of a plan or course of action) to fail to succeed or produce the expected results

"The plan withered on the vine."

"Without adequate funding and support, the innovative project was destined to wither on the vine."