\Dis`con*tin"u*ance\, n.
1. The act of discontinuing, or the state of being
   discontinued; want of continued connection or continuity;
   breaking off; cessation; interruption; as, a
   discontinuance of conversation or intercourse;
   discontinuance of a highway or of travel.
2. (Law)
   (a) A breaking off or interruption of an estate, which
       happened when an alienation was made by a tenant in
       tail, or other tenant, seized in right of another, of
       a larger estate than the tenant was entitled to,
       whereby the party ousted or injured was driven to his
       real action, and could not enter. This effect of such
       alienation is now obviated by statute in both England
       and the United States.
   (b) The termination of an action in practice by the
       voluntary act of the plaintiff; an entry on the record
       that the plaintiff discontinues his action.
   (c) That technical interruption of the proceedings in
       pleading in an action, which follows where a defendant
       does not answer the whole of the plaintiff's
       declaration, and the plaintiff omits to take judgment
       for the part unanswered. --Wharton's Law Dict.
       Burrill.
Syn: Cessation; intermission; discontinuation; separation;
     disunion; disjunction; disruption; break.