stop Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun the event of something ending
    halt.
    • it came to a stop at the bottom of the hill
  2. noun the act of stopping something
    stoppage.
    • the third baseman made some remarkable stops
    • his stoppage of the flow resulted in a flood
  3. noun a brief stay in the course of a journey
    stopover; layover.
    • they made a stopover to visit their friends
  4. noun the state of inactivity following an interruption
    halt; stoppage; hitch; arrest; stay; check.
    • the negotiations were in arrest
    • held them in check
    • during the halt he got some lunch
    • the momentary stay enabled him to escape the blow
    • he spent the entire stop in his seat
  5. noun a spot where something halts or pauses
    • his next stop is Atlanta
  6. noun a consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it
    plosive speech sound; plosive; occlusive; stop consonant; plosive consonant.
    • his stop consonants are too aspirated
  7. noun a punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations
    full point; full stop; period; point.
    • in England they call a period a stop
  8. noun (music) a knob on an organ that is pulled to change the sound quality from the organ pipes
    • the organist pulled out all the stops
  9. noun a mechanical device in a camera that controls size of aperture of the lens
    diaphragm.
    • the new cameras adjust the diaphragm automatically
  10. noun a restraint that checks the motion of something
    catch.
    • he used a book as a stop to hold the door open
  11. noun an obstruction in a pipe or tube
    closure; blockage; stoppage; occlusion; block.
    • we had to call a plumber to clear out the blockage in the drainpipe
  12. verb come to a halt, stop moving
    halt.
    • the car stopped
    • She stopped in front of a store window
  13. verb put an end to a state or an activity
    quit; discontinue; lay off; give up; cease.
    • Quit teasing your little brother
  14. verb stop from happening or developing
    kibosh; halt; block.
    • Block his election
    • Halt the process
  15. verb interrupt a trip
    stop over.
    • we stopped at Aunt Mary's house
    • they stopped for three days in Florence
  16. verb cause to stop
    • stop a car
    • stop the thief
  17. verb prevent completion
    break; discontinue; break off.
    • stop the project
    • break off the negotiations
  18. verb hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of
    turn back; hold back; arrest; contain; check.
    • Arrest the downward trend
    • Check the growth of communism in South East Asia
    • Contain the rebel movement
    • Turn back the tide of communism
  19. verb seize on its way
    intercept.
    • The fighter plane was ordered to intercept an aircraft that had entered the country's airspace
  20. verb have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
    cease; finish; end; terminate.
    • the bronchioles terminate in a capillary bed
    • Your rights stop where you infringe upon the rights of other
    • My property ends by the bushes
    • The symphony ends in a pianissimo
  21. verb render unsuitable for passage
    bar; block up; blockade; barricade; block off; block.
    • block the way
    • barricade the streets
    • stop the busy road
  22. verb stop and wait, as if awaiting further instructions or developments
    hold on.
    • Hold on a moment!

WordNet

Stop transitive verb
Etymology
OE. stoppen, AS. stoppian (in comp.); akin to LG. & D. stoppen, G. stopfen, Icel. stoppa, Sw. stoppa, Dan. stoppe; all probably fr. LL. stopare, stupare, fr. L. stuppa the coarse part of flax, tow, oakum. Cf. Estop, Stuff, Stupe a fomentation.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Stopped ; present participle & verbal noun Stopping
Definitions
  1. To close, as an aperture, by filling or by obstructing; as, to stop the ears; hence, to stanch, as a wound. Shak.
  2. To obstruct; to render impassable; as, to stop a way, road, or passage.
  3. To arrest the progress of; to hinder; to impede; to shut in; as, to stop a traveler; to stop the course of a stream, or a flow of blood.
  4. To hinder from acting or moving; to prevent the effect or efficiency of; to cause to cease; to repress; to restrain; to suppress; to interrupt; to suspend; as, to stop the execution of a decree, the progress of vice, the approaches of old age or infirmity.
    Whose disposition all the world well knows Will not be rubbed nor stopped. Shak.
  5. (Mus.) To regulate the sounds of, as musical strings, by pressing them against the finger board with the finger, or by shortening in any way the vibrating part.
  6. To point, as a composition; to punctuate. R.
    If his sentences were properly stopped. Landor.
  7. (Naut.) To make fast; to stopper. Syn. -- To obstruct; hinder; impede; repress; suppress; restrain; discontinue; delay; interrupt.
Stop intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To cease to go on; to halt, or stand still; to come to a stop.
    He bites his lip, and starts; Stops on a sudden, looks upon the ground; Then lays his finger on his temple: strait Springs out into fast gait; then stops again. Shak.
  2. To cease from any motion, or course of action.
    Stop, while ye may, suspend your mad career! Cowper.
  3. To spend a short time; to reside temporarily; to stay; to tarry; as, to stop with a friend. Colloq.
    By stopping at home till the money was gone. R. D. Blackmore.
    or on an airplane flight. See stopover To stop off, to make a brief visit
Stop noun
Definitions
  1. The act of stopping, or the state of being stopped; hindrance of progress or of action; cessation; repression; interruption; check; obstruction.
    It is doubtful . . . whether it contributed anything to the stop of the infection. De Foe.
    Occult qualities put a stop to the improvement of natural philosophy. Sir I. Newton.
    It is a great step toward the mastery of our desires to give this stop to them. Locke.
  2. That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; as obstacle; an impediment; an obstruction.
    A fatal stop traversed their headlong course. Daniel.
    So melancholy a prospect should inspire us with zeal to oppose some stop to the rising torrent. Rogers.
  3. (Mach.) A device, or piece, as a pin, block, pawl, etc., for arresting or limiting motion, or for determining the position to which another part shall be brought.
  4. (Mus.) (a) The closing of an aperture in the air passage, or pressure of the finger upon the string, of an instrument of music, so as to modify the tone; hence, any contrivance by which the sounds of a musical instrument are regulated.
    The organ sound a time survives the stop. Daniel.
    (b) In the organ, one of the knobs or handles at each side of the organist, by which he can draw on or shut off any register or row of pipes; the register itself; as, the vox humana stop.
  5. (Arch.) A member, plain or molded, formed of a separate piece and fixed to a jamb, against which a door or window shuts. This takes the place, or answers the purpose, of a rebate. Also, a pin or block to prevent a drawer from sliding too far.
  6. A point or mark in writing or printing intended to distinguish the sentences, parts of a sentence, or clauses; a mark of punctuation. See Punctuation.
  7. (Opt.) The diaphragm used in optical instruments to cut off the marginal portions of a beam of light passing through lenses.
  8. (Zoöl.) The depression in the face of a dog between the skull and the nasal bones. It is conspicuous in the bulldog, pug, and some other breeds.
  9. (Phonetics) Some part of the articulating organs, as the lips, or the tongue and palate, closed (a) so as to cut off the passage of breath or voice through the mouth and the nose (distinguished as a lip-stop, or a front-stop, etc., as in p, t, d, etc.), or (b) so as to obstruct, but not entirely cut off, the passage, as in l, n, etc.; also, any of the consonants so formed. H. Sweet. Syn. -- Cessation; check; obstruction; obstacle; hindrance; impediment; interruption.

Webster 1913