Dictionary Definition
finish
Noun
1 a decorative texture or appearance of a surface
(or the substance that gives it that appearance); "the boat had a
metallic finish"; "he applied a coat of a clear finish"; "when the
finish is too thin it is difficult to apply evenly" [syn: coating, finishing]
2 designated event that concludes a contest
(especially a race); "excitement grew as the finish neared"; "my
horse was several lengths behind at the finish"; "the winner is the
team with the most points at the finish"
3 the act of finishing; "his best finish in a
major tournament was third"; "the speaker's finishing was greeted
with applause" [syn: finishing] [ant: beginning]
4 the place designated as the end (as of a race
or journey); "a crowd assembled at the finish"; "he was nearly
exhuasted as their destination came into view" [syn: destination, goal]
5 the temporal end; the concluding time; "the
stopping point of each round was signaled by a bell"; "the market
was up at the finish"; "they were playing better at the close of
the season" [syn: stopping
point, finale,
finis, last, conclusion, close]
6 (wine tasting) the taste of a wine on the back
of the tongue (as it is swallowed); "the wine has a nutty flavor
and a pleasant finish"
7 event whose occurrence ends something; "his
death marked the ending of an era"; "when these final episodes are
broadcast it will be the finish of the show" [syn: ending, conclusion] [ant: beginning]
8 the downfall of someone (as of persons on one
side of a conflict); "booze will be the finish of him"; "it was a
fight to the finish"
9 a highly developed state of perfection; having
a flawless or impeccable quality; "they performed with great
polish"; "I admired the exquisite refinement of his prose"; "almost
an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost
art"--Joseph Conrad [syn: polish, refinement, culture, cultivation]
Verb
1 come or bring to a finish or an end; "He
finished the dishes"; "She completed the requirements for her
Master's Degree"; "The fastest runner finished the race in just
over 2 hours; others finished in over 4 hours" [syn: complete]
2 finally be or do something; "He ended up
marrying his high school sweetheart"; "he wound up being unemployed
and living at home again" [syn: finish up,
land up,
fetch
up, end
up, wind
up]
3 have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or
quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical; "the
bronchioles terminate in a capillary bed"; "Your rights stop where
you infringe upon the rights of other"; "My property ends by the
bushes"; "The symphony ends in a pianissimo" [syn: end, stop, terminate, cease] [ant: begin]
4 provide with a finish; "The carpenter finished
the table beautifully"
5 finish eating all the food on one's plate or on
the table; "She polished off the remaining potatoes" [syn: eat up, polish
off]
6 cause to finish a relationship with somebody;
"That finished me with Mary"
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Pronunciation
- /ˈfɪnɪʃ/
- /"fInIS/
Homophones
Noun
- The end of anything.
- A protective coating given to wood or metal and other surfaces.
- The car's finish was so shiny and new.
- A score similar to a touchdown in the game of scuffleball, worth four points.
- (of textiles) The result of any process changing the physical or chemical properties of cloth.
Translations
end
- Catalan: meta, fita
- Chinese: 终结
- Danish: slutning
- Dutch: eindstreep, finish, meet
- Finnish: loppu, maali
- French: fin
- German: Ende
- Greek: τέλος
- Interlingua: fin, termination
- Italian: fine
- Latvian: beigas
- Norwegian: avslutning m|f, slutt
- Polish: koniec
- Portuguese: fim, acabamento
- Spanish: meta, fin
- Volapük: fin, finük
protective coating
- Danish: finish
- Finnish: pintakäsittely
- French: fini
- German: Lack
score in scuffleball
Verb
- To complete (something).
- Please finish your homework!
- To apply a treatment to (a surface, etc).
- The furniture was finished in teak veneer.
- To change an animal's food supply in the months before it is
due for slaughter, with the intention of fattening the animal.
- Due to BSE, cows in the United Kingdom must be finished and slaughtered before 30 months of age.
- : To come to an end.
- The song has finished.
Usage notes
- This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (the -ing form). See Appendix:English catenative verbs
Translations
to complete
- Czech: dokončit
- Dutch: afwerken, beëindigen
- Finnish: lopettaa (1), viimeistellä (2)
- French: finir, achever
- Galician: acabar
- German: beenden
- Greek: τελειώνω
- Interlingua: finir, terminar
- Irish: críochnaigh
- Italian: finire
- Latvian: beigt, pabeigt
- Norwegian: avslutte
- Polish: dokonywać, dokonać
- Portuguese: acabar
- Spanish: acabar, terminar
- Telugu: ముగించు (mugimchu) పూర్తిచేయు (poorthicheyu)
- Thai: เสร็จ
- Volapük: fimekön, finükön, lemekön
to apply a final treatment to
- Finnish: viimeistellä
- German: fertigstellen
to come to an end
Related terms
Danish
Noun
finish c- finish (protective coating)
Dutch
Noun
finish f- finish, end
Extensive Definition
Finish may mean:
- Finishing in the distillation of Scotch
- Finished good, a good that is completed as to manufacturing but not yet sold or distributed to the end-user.
- Wood finishing, the process of embellishing and/or protecting the surface of wooden objects.
Similar spelling
- Finnish (disambiguation), peoples or language of the European country Finland.
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Atticism, KO, Z, ablate, abort, absoluteness, absorb, accomplish, accomplishment, achieve, achievement, acquirement, acquisition, annihilate, annihilation, answer, answer conclusively,
apodosis, appropriateness, argue
down, assassinate,
assimilate, attainment, balance, beat, beautify, bereave of life,
best, bilateral symmetry,
bleed white, border line, bound, boundary, boundary condition,
boundary line, bourn,
break boundary, breakoff point, bring down, buff, bump off, burn up, burnish, button up, call off,
cancel, cap, carry away, carry off, carry
out, carry to completion, catastrophe, cease, ceasing, ceiling, cessation, chasteness, chastity, chloroform, circumscription,
clarity, classicalism, classicism, clean up,
clearness, climax, clinch, close, close out, close up,
closing, coda, comeliness, compass, complete, completing, completion, conclude, conclusion, confine, conformity, confound, confute, congruity, conquer, consistency, consume, consummate, consummation, contradict, controvert, cool, correctness, correspondence, crack of
doom, crown, crush, culminate, culmination, cultivate, cultivation, curtain, curtains, cut down, cut off,
cut short, cutoff, cutoff
point, deadline,
death, decease, defeat, defectlessness, delete, delimitation, demolish, denouement, deny, deplete, deprive of life,
desistance, destination, destiny, destroy, destruction, determinant, determine, develop, devour, digest, dignity, directness, discrimination, dismiss, dispatch, dispose of, distinction, division line,
do away with, do for, do in, do to death, doom, down, downfall, drain, drain of resources, drink
up, drop the curtain, dust off, dynamic symmetry, ease, eat, eat up, effect, elaborate, elegance, elegancy, embellish, end, end off, end point, ending, envoi, epilogue, equality, equilibrium, erode, eschatology, eurythmics, eurythmy, evenness, evolve, execute, exhaust, expend, expiration, expunge, exterminate, extermination, extinguish, extremity, fate, faultlessness, feel, felicitousness, felicity, final solution, final
twitch, final words, finale, finality, finalize, finis, finish off, finish up,
finishing, fittingness, flawlessness, floor, flow, flowing periods, fluency, fold up, frontier, fulfill, full development,
furbish, get done, get
it over, get over with, get rid of, get through, get through with,
give the quietus, glance,
glaze, gloss, go, goal, gobble, gobble up, good taste,
grace, gracefulness, gracility, grain, granular texture, halt, harmony, have done with,
hedge, high-water mark,
ice, immaculateness, immolate, impeccability, impoverish, indentation, infallibility, ingest, interface, izzard, kayo, keeping, kibosh, kill, killing, knock off, knock out,
knub, last, last breath, last gasp, last
things, last trumpet, last words, latter end, launch into eternity,
let go, let loose, limen,
limit, limitation, limiting factor,
limpidity, line, line of demarcation, liquidate, low-water mark,
lower limit, lucidity,
luster, lynch, make away with, march, mark, martyr, martyrize, maturation, mature, maturity, mete, mop up, multilateral
symmetry, murder,
nap, naturalness, neatness, nip, nonplus, nub, omega, overcome, overthrow, overturn, overwhelm, parallelism, parry, patina, payoff, pellucidity, perfect, perfection, period, perorate, peroration, perspicuity, pile, pit, plainness, pock, poison, polarity, polish, polish off, proportion, proportionality,
propriety, protuberance, purge, purity, put away, put down, put
paid to, put to death, put to silence, put to sleep, quietus, rebut, reduce to silence, refine, refinement, refute, regularity, release, remove from life,
resolution, resolve, resting place, restraint, ripen, ripeness, round out, rounding
off, rounding out, rub, rub
out, run through, sacrifice, scour, scrag, scrap, scratch, season, seemliness, set free,
settle, shag, shapeliness, shine, shoot down, shut up,
silence, simplicity, sinlessness, slaughter, slay, sleek, slick, slick down, smash all
opposition, smoothness, spend, spotlessness, squander, squash, squelch, stainlessness, start, starting line, starting
point, starve, stop, stoppage, stopping place,
straightforwardness,
structure, subvert, suck dry, surface, surface texture,
swallow, swallow up,
swan song, symmetricalness,
symmetry, taintlessness, take life,
take off, target date, taste, tastefulness, term, terminal, terminal date,
terminate, termination, terminus, terseness, texture, threshold, time allotment,
to, top off, top out, topping
off, trilateral symmetry, ultimate, unaffectedness, undermine, uniformity, upper limit,
upset, use up, varnish, wale, wash up, waste, waste away, wax, wear away, weave, wind up, windup, wipe out, woof, worst, wrap up, zap