To discontinue is to intermit, to disuse, to interrupt.

Explanation

Discontinuance is the failure to maintain or prosecute — a right or action left dormant may be treated as abandoned.

Where this applies

• I stopped pursuing my case for a while and now they say I abandoned it.
• Discontinuance of a legal action may be treated as abandonment.
• I failed to maintain my claim and now it may be lost.

See also

• 11.4.3 That which is so persistently repeated as to constitute virtually an unbroken series is continuous.
• 12.9.1 Time is the devourer of things; for time is a means of destroying obligations and actions, because time runs against the slothful and those who neglect their own rights.