stops Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a gambling card game in which chips are placed on the ace and king and queen and jack of separate suits (taken from a separate deck); a player plays the lowest card of a suit in his hand and successively higher cards are played until the sequence stops; the player who plays a card matching one in the layout wins all the chips on that card
    Michigan; Newmarket; boodle; Chicago.
  2. noun the event of something ending
    stop; halt.
    • it came to a stop at the bottom of the hill
  3. noun the act of stopping something
    stoppage; stop.
    • the third baseman made some remarkable stops
    • his stoppage of the flow resulted in a flood
  4. noun a brief stay in the course of a journey
    stop; stopover; layover.
    • they made a stopover to visit their friends
  5. noun the state of inactivity following an interruption
    halt; stoppage; stop; 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
  6. noun a spot where something halts or pauses
    stop.
    • his next stop is Atlanta
  7. noun a consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it
    plosive speech sound; plosive; stop; occlusive; stop consonant; plosive consonant.
    • his stop consonants are too aspirated
  8. noun a punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations
    full point; full stop; stop; period; point.
    • in England they call a period a stop
  9. noun (music) a knob on an organ that is pulled to change the sound quality from the organ pipes
    stop.
    • the organist pulled out all the stops
  10. noun a mechanical device in a camera that controls size of aperture of the lens
    diaphragm; stop.
    • the new cameras adjust the diaphragm automatically
  11. noun a restraint that checks the motion of something
    catch; stop.
    • he used a book as a stop to hold the door open
  12. noun an obstruction in a pipe or tube
    closure; blockage; stoppage; occlusion; stop; block.
    • we had to call a plumber to clear out the blockage in the drainpipe
  13. verb come to a halt, stop moving
    stop; halt.
    • the car stopped
    • She stopped in front of a store window
  14. verb put an end to a state or an activity
    quit; discontinue; lay off; stop; give up; cease.
    • Quit teasing your little brother
  15. verb stop from happening or developing
    kibosh; stop; halt; block.
    • Block his election
    • Halt the process
  16. verb interrupt a trip
    stop over; stop.
    • we stopped at Aunt Mary's house
    • they stopped for three days in Florence
  17. verb cause to stop
    stop.
    • stop a car
    • stop the thief
  18. verb prevent completion
    break; stop; discontinue; break off.
    • stop the project
    • break off the negotiations
  19. verb hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of
    turn back; stop; 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
  20. verb seize on its way
    intercept; stop.
    • The fighter plane was ordered to intercept an aircraft that had entered the country's airspace
  21. verb have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
    stop; 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
  22. verb render unsuitable for passage
    bar; block up; stop; blockade; barricade; block off; block.
    • block the way
    • barricade the streets
    • stop the busy road
  23. verb stop and wait, as if awaiting further instructions or developments
    hold on; stop.
    • Hold on a moment!

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