smesso

Smesso is the past participle of the Italian verb smettere, meaning to stop, quit, or cease. It is used to form compound tenses with the auxiliary avere, most often in constructions describing a completed action.

A common usage is with the infinitive introduced by di, conveying that someone has stopped doing something. For example, ho smesso di fumare means “I have stopped smoking,” and hanno smesso di lavorare means “they have stopped working.” The typical pattern is smettere di + [infinitive].

As an adjective, smesso can indicate that something has ceased or ended, though this usage is less common in everyday speech and is often replaced by terms such as cessato or terminato in more formal contexts.

Etymology and related forms: smesso derives from the verb smettere. The form shown here is the masculine singular past participle; Italian past-participle forms for other genders or numbers are generally not required in the standard present-day usage when the auxiliary is avere, as in the examples above.

Usage notes: In most modern Italian, the key construction to express cessation is smettere di + infinitive, with the auxiliary avere in the perfect tenses (ho smesso, hai smesso, ha smesso, etc.). This pattern covers quit smoking, quit drinking, quit a job, and similar actions.