0 to stop doing something, especially something that someone else does not want you to do:
1 to stop doing something:
With rampant unemployment and a surplus of labor, many workers desisted from joining unions out of fear of such reprisals.
I desist from trying to specify too precisely what the upper limit might be on the size of a workable legislative assembly.
Although we found significant decreases in the mean levels of problem behavior, the categorical analyses revealed that more children persist than desist in problem behavior.
Another question is whether individuals who desist do so under better educational and employment conditions compared to persisting delinquents.
Out of that group, almost 40% desisted in serious offending between ages 20 and 25.
But to desist from these truly vital questions would appear to us as dereliction of duty.
Therefore, it is necessary to stipulate how large the window needs to be to consider a person as having desisted.
They then instruct medical personnel to desist from heroic measures to prolong the dying process.
