finish

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To arrive at or attain the end of: finish a race.
2. v. To bring to an end; terminate: finished cleaning the room.
3. v. To consume all of; use up: finish a pie.
4. v. To bring to a desired or required state: finish a painting. See Synonyms at complete.
5. v. To give (wood, for example) a desired or particular surface texture.
6. v. To destroy; kill: finished the injured horse with a bullet.
7. v. To bring about the ruin of: The stock market crash finished many speculators.
8. v. To come to an end; stop.
9. v. To reach the end of a task, course, or relationship.
10. n. The final part; the conclusion: racers neck-and-neck at the finish.
11. n. The reason for one's ruin; downfall.
12. n. Something that completes, concludes, or perfects, especially:
13. n. The last treatment or coating of a surface: applied a shellac finish to the cabinet.
14. n. The surface texture produced by such a treatment or coating.
15. n. A material used in surfacing or finishing.
16. n. Completeness, refinement, or smoothness of execution; polish.
17. n. The flavor left in the mouth after wine has been swallowed.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To bring to an end; arrive at the end of; complete by passing throughout the length or extent of: as, to finish a journey or an undertaking; to finish the day; to finish one's life.
2. To bring to completion; complete by making or doing the last or final part of: as, to finish the reading of a book; to finish a task assigned; to finish a house.
3. To put an end to; terminate the existence, opposition, etc., of; destroy: as, to finish an enemy by an overwhelming defeat; the last blow finished him.
4. To complete and perfect in detail; elaborate carefully; put the final touches on, especially with reference to smoothing and polishing.
5. To arrive at the end; stop.
6. To come to an end; terminate; expire.
7. n. The end or last part of any movement or progress; especially, the end of a race or competitive contest of any kind.
8. n. The last work performed upon any object, whereby it is completed or perfected.
9. n. Careful elaboration or its result; polish: as, the finish of a work of art, a poem, or a piece of cloth; to put a fine finish on anything, or to give it an exquisite finish; finish in deportment.
10. n. The last hard, smooth coat of plaster on a wall: commonly called hard-finish.
11. n. In building, all those parts of the work which are not essential to the structure but are intended to give elegance of appearance or neatness within, or such smoothness of surface as makes it easily cleaned. Thus the interior finish includes the woodwork of door-trims, dados, and the like, the marble-work when put to similar uses, and mantelpieces, etc.

Wiktionary

1. n. An end: the end of anything.
2. n. A protective coating given to wood or metal and other surfaces.
3. n. The result of any process changing the physical or chemical properties of cloth.
4. n. sports A shot on goal, especially one that ends in a goal.
5. v. transitive To complete (something).
6. v. transitive To apply a treatment to (a surface or similar).
7. v. transitive To change an animal's food supply in the months before it is due for slaughter, with the intention of fattening the animal.
8. v. intransitive To come to an end.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To arrive at the end of; to bring to an end; to put an end to; to make an end of; to terminate.
2. v. To bestow the last required labor upon; to complete; to bestow the utmost possible labor upon; to perfect; to accomplish; to polish.
3. v. To come to an end; to terminate.
4. v. rare To end; to die.
5. n. That which finishes, puts an end to� or perfects.
6. n. (Arch.) The joiner work and other finer work required for the completion of a building, especially of the interior. See Inside finish, and Outside finish.
7. n. The labor required to give final completion to any work; hence, minute detail, careful elaboration, or the like.
8. n. See Finishing coat, under Finishing.
9. n. The result of completed labor, as on the surface of an object; manner or style of finishing
10. n. Completion; -- opposed to start, or beginning.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. designated event that concludes a contest (especially a race)
2. n. the act of finishing
3. v. come or bring to a finish or an end
4. v. finish eating all the food on one's plate or on the table
5. v. provide with a finish
6. n. (wine tasting) the taste of a wine on the back of the tongue (as it is swallowed)
7. n. a decorative texture or appearance of a surface (or the substance that gives it that appearance)
8. n. the place designated as the end (as of a race or journey)
9. n. event whose occurrence ends something
10. n. the temporal end; the concluding time
11. v. cause to finish a relationship with somebody
12. n. a highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality
13. v. have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
14. n. the downfall of someone (as of persons on one side of a conflict)
15. v. finally be or do something