cease and desist vs put the brakes on

cease and desist

verb
  • To stop and not resume an action. 

noun
  • A demand that one stop and not resume continuing a certain behavior, such as copyright infringement, trademark infringement, slander, or libel. 

put the brakes on

verb
  • To stop (an event, action, or process) or to slow it down. 

  • To cease to perform one's current activity or to decrease one's level of activity. 

How often have the words cease and desist and put the brakes on occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )