Wiktionary

continue

See also: continué and continúe

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English continuen, from Old French continuer, from Latin continuāre. Displaced native Old English þurhwunian.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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continue (third-person singular simple present continues, present participle continuing, simple past and past participle continued)

  1. (transitive) To proceed with (doing an activity); to prolong (an activity).
    Shall I continue speaking, or will you just interrupt me again?
    Do you want me to continue to unload these?
    • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii:
      Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.
    • 2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, BBC‎[Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea]:
      Fuelled by their fury, Spurs surged forward and gave themselves hope after 56 minutes when Scott Parker's precise through-ball released Adebayor. He was pulled down in the area by Cech but referee Atkinson allowed play to continue for Bale to roll the ball into an empty net.
    • 2022 January 12, “Network News: £7.2 million plan to stop flooding and protect South West rail link”, in RAIL, number 948, page 12:
      It has emphasised that the proposals do not involve any work on the railway itself, so train services would continue to run throughout.
  2. (transitive) To make last; to prolong.
    • 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 1:
      , New York, 2001, p.74:
      Can you account him wise or discreet that would willingly have his health, and yet will do nothing that should procure or continue it?
    • 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread , chapter 4:
      Gino was distracted. She knew why; he wanted a son. He could talk and think of nothing else. His one desire was to become the father of a man like himself, and it held him with a grip he only partially understood, for it was the first great desire, the first great passion of his life. Falling in love was a mere physical triviality, like warm sun or cool water, beside this divine hope of immortality: "I continue."
  3. (transitive) To retain (someone or something) in a given state, position, etc.
    • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
      […] dip the mouth of it within the second glass and remove your finger; continue it in that posture for a time, and it will unmingle the wine from the water […]
    • 2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 257:
      The schools were very much the brainchild of Bertin, and although the latter was ousted from the post of Controller-General by Choiseul in 1763, he was continued by the king as a fifth secretary of state […].
  4. (intransitive, copulative sense obsolete) To remain in a given place or condition; to remain in connection with; to abide; to stay.
  5. (intransitive) To resume.
    When will the concert continue?
  6. (transitive, law) To adjourn, prorogue, put off.
    This meeting has been continued to the thirteenth of July.
  7. (poker slang) To make a continuation bet.

Usage notes

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  • In the transitive sense, continue may be followed by either the present participle or the infinitive; hence use either "to continue writing" or "to continue to write".
  • As continue conveys the sense of progression, it is pleonastic to follow it with "on" (as in "Continue on with what you were doing").

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Noun

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English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

continue (plural continues)

  1. (video games) An option allowing the player to resume play after game over, when all lives have been lost, while retaining their progress.
    • 2008, Jeannie Novak, Luis Levy, Play the Game: The Parent's Guide to Video Games, →ISBN, page 48:
      So if you died battling the green monster inside the cave—and you had run out of lives—maybe a continue would be available.
    • 2012, James A. Newman, Best Before: Videogames, Supersession and Obsolescence, →ISBN, page 128:
      Moreover, where three lives and a sparse availability of extra life-giving '1-Ups' marked the 1991 experience, the iPod player is offered an unlimited number of continues with which to progress through the gameworld.

Anagrams

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Dutch

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Etymology 1

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Adjective

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continue

  1. Misspelling of continu (“continuous”).

Etymology 2

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See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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continue

  1. inflection of continu:
    1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
    2. definite neuter singular attributive
    3. plural attributive

French

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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continue

  1. inflection of continuer:
    1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
    2. second-person singular imperative

Adjective

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continue

  1. feminine singular of continu

Anagrams

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Galician

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Verb

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continue

  1. (reintegrationist norm) inflection of continuar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Interlingua

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Adjective

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continue (comparative plus continue, superlative le plus continue)

  1. continuous

Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /konˈti.nu.e/, /konˈti.nwe/[1]
  • Rhymes: -inue, -inwe
  • Hyphenation: con‧tì‧nu‧e, con‧tì‧nue

Adjective

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continue f pl

  1. feminine plural of continuo

References

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  1. ^ continuo in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

Anagrams

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Latin

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Adjective

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continue

  1. vocative masculine singular of continuus

References

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  • “continue”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  • continue in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Portuguese

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Verb

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continue

  1. inflection of continuar:
    1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
    2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

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Pronunciation

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Adjective

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continue (plural)

  1. feminine/neuter plural of continuu

Verb

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continue (third person subjunctive)

  1. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of continua
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