Talk:cease to be

RFD discussion: February 2020–April 2021
This seems SoP to me. I suspect it exists only for the opportunity to insert the citation. DCDuring (talk) 20:24, 7 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I would say that "X has ceased to be" and minor variants is a sort of catchphrase, repeated after the said comedy sketch. Mihia (talk) 21:23, 7 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I think saying that to be equals having a pulse is rather far-fetched. "be" means "To exist; to have real existence". The parrot has ceased to be, yet, it still exists. It's dead (or pining.. no, definitely dead), yet it ceased to be. So I lean towards keep. Alexis Jazz (talk) 22:40, 25 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Seems like the same sense of be as in "To be or not to be" (from a soliloquy in which Hamlet is contemplating suicide). —Granger (talk · contribs) 22:52, 25 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I better add a sense to be then. (done) Alexis Jazz (talk) 23:59, 25 June 2020 (UTC)
 * I've nominated it for deletion; see below. PUC – 21:10, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Delete, SOP. PUC – 10:01, 29 June 2020 (UTC)
 * Delete, SOP. --Uisleach (talk) 20:42, 3 July 2020 (UTC)
 * Are there any more examples? --Geographyinitiative (talk) 03:14, 5 March 2021 (UTC)


 * Delete, just SoP. Dead (living thing) or defunct (organization, country, etc.). Lots of similar SoP terms like "cease to exist", "no longer exist", etc. No independent meaning, dependent on context. Can always be re-added if someone can explain why. How about cease to exist, stopped existing, etc.? Just because it sounds nice or is poetic doesn't mean it should be here and not in a textbook or manual of something. Facts707 (talk) 01:43, 18 March 2021 (UTC)
 * Keep. Has the qualities of a set phrase. "Stop to be," "stop being," "end to be," etc. do not work. There's also the more literal sense of the term that I would add to the entry. Imetsia (talk) 16:30, 5 March 2021 (UTC)
 * I think that's just a property of the verbs, not of this specific phrase. You can "Cease to operate", or "Cease to have", but you can't "Stop to operate" or "End to have". More formally, cease is a catenative verb that can take an infinitival or gerund-participial complement. stop only takes gerund-participials ("Stop operating"), and end isn't catenative at all. Colin M (talk) 21:23, 28 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Keep. A literal sense would be to cease to exist, not merely to cease being alive. bd2412 T 20:39, 11 April 2021 (UTC)


 * But those two concepts are conflated in general, e.g. "he is no more". Equinox ◑ 20:40, 11 April 2021 (UTC)
 * We have an entry with that meaning at no more. bd2412 T 04:54, 16 April 2021 (UTC)


 * So what? The two concepts are conflated. You don't solve this by unthinkingly slicing all the phrases word-wise and hoping you caught them all, Ash. Equinox ◑ 06:42, 16 April 2021 (UTC)
 * You do when the phrases are set and have obtained cultural meaning. bd2412 T 16:28, 16 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Delete as SoP. — SGconlaw (talk) 08:25, 16 April 2021 (UTC)


 * Delete as SoP. It's not limited to expressing death. It just means to... stop existing. e.g. quote from NYT: "and unless we have something to back that financial pool, then the operation must cease to be." Or consider this quote from a blog post: "The rational part of me says that when I die I will just cease to be." I'm sure the author is not saying that when they die they will die. Colin M (talk) 21:28, 28 April 2021 (UTC)

Deleted. bd2412 T 06:34, 29 April 2021 (UTC)