<B>stop, </B>verb, <B>stopped</B> or (Archaic) <B>stopt,</B> <B>stopping,</B> noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>v.t. </I> <B>1a. </B>to keep from moving, acting, doing, being, or working. <BR> <I>Ex. to stop work, stop a speaker, stop a car. The men stopped the boys from teasing the cat. I stopped the clock.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>to hold back; restrain; prevent. <BR> <I>Ex. If anyone wants to go, I shan't stop him.</I> (SYN) hinder, deter, impede. <DD><B> 2. </B>to cut off; withhold. <BR> <I>Ex. to stop supplies, stop a person's pay.</I> (SYN) discontinue, intermit, suspend. <DD><B> 3. </B>to put an end to; interrupt; check. <BR> <I>Ex. to stop a noise.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>to close (a hole or opening) by filling (it);fill holes in; close. <BR> <I>Ex. to stop a crack, stop a leak, stop a wound. Father stopped up the rats' holes.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>to close (a vessel) with a cork, plug, or the like; shut up (something) in a closed vessel or place. <BR> <I>Ex. to stop a bottle.</I> <DD><B> 6. </B>to block (a way); obstruct. <BR> <I>Ex. A fallen tree stopped traffic. A big box stops up the doorway.</I> <DD><B> 7. </B>to check, counter, or parry (a stroke, blow, weapon, attack or maneuver); ward off. <DD><B> 8. </B>to defeat by a knockout in boxing. <BR> <I>Ex. He was stopped in the second round.</I> <DD><B> 9. </B>to defeat (in various games). <DD><B> 10. </B>to bring down or kill by the action of a weapon. <DD><B> 11. </B><B>=punctuate.</B> <DD><B> 12. </B>(Music.) <DD><B> a. </B>to close (a finger hole) in order to produce a particular tone from a wind instrument. <DD><B> b. </B>to press down (a string as of a violin or guitar) in order to alter the pitch of tone produced. Stopping a string shortens its vibrating length and thus produces a higher tone than that of the unstopped (open) string. <DD><B> c. </B>to produce (a tone or sound) by this means. <DD><B> 13. </B>to instruct a bank not to honor (a check, bill, or other negotiable form) when presented. <DD><B> 14. </B>to issue a stop order on (a particular security). <DD><B> 15. </B>to have (a suit in bridge) guarded or blocked by holding a high card and cards to protect it and thus to prevent an opponent from running all the tricks in the suit. <DD><I>v.i. </I> <B>1. </B>to cease to move; stay; halt. <BR> <I>Ex. Stop, look, and listen.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>to halt and remain; stay on. <BR> <I>Ex. to stop for the night at a hotel. She stopped at the bank for a few minutes. Because I could not stop for Death--He kindly stopped for me (Emily Dickinson).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>to leave off acting, doing, or being; come to an end; discontinue; cease. <BR> <I>Ex. All work stopped. The rain is stopping.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>to be or become plugged or clogged. <BR> <I>Ex. The drain stopped.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> <B>1a. </B>the act of coming to a halt; cessation of onward movement. <BR> <I>Ex. Her sudden stop startled us.</I> <DD><B> b. </B>a cessation of an activity or process; end. <BR> <I>Ex. The singing came to a stop.</I> <DD><B> c. </B>a stay or halt in the course of a journey. <BR> <I>Ex. a short stop for lunch.</I> <DD><B> d. </B>a blocking, hindering, checking, or obstructing. <BR> <I>Ex. to be the cause of a complete stop of traffic.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>the fact or condition of being stopped. <DD><B> 3. </B>a place where a stop is made. <BR> <I>Ex. a bus stop.</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>a thing that stops; obstacle. <BR> <I>Ex. The old brick was set against the open door as a stop to keep it from blowing shut.</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>a plug or cork; stopper. <DD><B> 6. </B>any piece or device that serves to check or control movement or action in a mechanism. <DD><B> 7a. </B>a punctuation mark that normally indicates some kind of pause, such as a comma, semicolon, colon, question mark, exclamation point, and dash. <DD><B> b. </B>a full stop; period. <DD><B> 8. </B>a word used in telegrams and cables, instead of a period. <DD><B> 9. </B>(Music.) <DD><B> a. </B>the closing of a finger hole or aperture in the tube of a wind instrument, or the act of pressing with the finger on a string of a violin or similar instrument, so as to alter the pitch of its tone. <DD><B> b. </B>a key or other device that controls the pitch of an instrument. <DD><B> c. </B>a graduated set of organ pipes of the same kind, producing tones of the same quality. <BR> <I>Ex. One music from a thousand stops and strings (Henry Augustin Beers).</I> <DD><B> d. </B>the handle or knob that controls them; stop knob. <DD><B> e. </B>a similar set of reeds in a reed organ. <DD><B> 10. </B>(Photography.) the aperture of a lens, or the f/number indicating this. <BR> <I>Ex. The next stop smaller than f/3.5 is f/2.</I> <DD><B> 11. </B>(Phonetics.) <DD><B> a. </B>a sudden, complete stopping of the breath stream either in the glottis, at some point in the mouth, or at the lips, followed by its sudden release. <DD><B> b. </B>a consonant that involves such a stopping; explosive. <I>P, b, t, d, k,</I> and <I>g</I> (as in <I>go</I>) are stops. <DD><B> c. </B>(in some classifications) a speech sound articulated, with the nasal passage either open or closed, by completely stopping the breath stream at some point, thus including also the nasals, such as English <I>m, n,</I> and <I>ng.</I> <DD><B> 12a. </B>an instruction to a bank or banker not to honor a check, bill, or other negotiable form. <DD><B> b. </B><B>=stop order.</B> <DD><B> 13. </B>(Nautical.) any piece of small rope, cloth, etc., used to hold or tie something, especially a furled sail. <DD><B> 14. </B>a high card or group of cards in a suit that protects the holder against an opponent's run in that suit. <BR><I>expr. <B>pull out all</B> (<B>the</B>) <B>stops,</B> </I>to do something in the biggest way possible; exert maximum effort. <BR> <I>Ex. But perhaps the best scene in the show is Art Smith's shrewd lawyer pulling out all stops to get Volpone acquitted (Saturday Review).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>put a stop to,</B> </I>to stop; end. <BR> <I>Ex. Henry ... put a stop to this (M. J. Guest). The coal trade at Newcastle was for some time put a stop to by a mutiny (John Brand).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>stop by</B> (or <B>in</B>), </I>to stop for a short visit. <BR> <I>Ex. He stopped in, not at all sure that on this first occasion he would be able to broach the dangerous subject (Theodore Dreiser).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>stop down,</B> </I>(Photography.) to reduce the aperture of a lens and thus the amount of light reaching the film or plate. <BR> <I>Ex. The sharpness of the picture can ... be greatly improved by the simple expedient of "stopping down" (J. A. Hodges).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>stop off,</B> </I>(Informal.) to stop for a short stay. <BR> <I>Ex. Yet would I counsel the traveler whose way lies by Avignon to stop off, if only for an hour, in order to ascend the Rocher des Doms (Outing).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>stop out,</B> <DD><B> a. </B>(U.S.) to interrupt one's education to pursue some other activity for a brief period. </I> <I>Ex. The trend of stopping out is growing, however, partly because the draft law now gives young men with high lottery numbers a new freedom (Time).</I> <DD><B> b. </B>(Etching.) to stop (certain parts of a plate) from being further exposed to the acid. <BR> <I>Ex. Before the second and successive acid bath, he [the artist] uses either ground or varnish to stop out ... areas of the plate having the desired depth (Andrew J. Stasik, Jr.).</I> <BR><I>expr. <B>stop over,</B> <DD><B> a. </B>to make a short stay. </I> <I>Ex. By stopping over at Dalhousie [in Canada] ... the following localities may be visited (J. W. Dawson).</I> <DD><B> b. </B>(Informal.) to stop in the course of a trip. <BR> <I>Ex. You renewed your ticket after stopping over in Baltimore (Mark Twain).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="stopaction">
<B>stop-action, </B>adjective, noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>adj. </I> of or having to do with a method of photography in which a quick action or movement is broken down into a series of still pictures somewhat like stop-motion or time-lapse photography, but without omitting any action. <BR> <I>Ex. a stop-action photo of a high jump.</I> <DD><I>noun </I> stop-action photography. <BR> <I>Ex. Through "stop-action," the electron shells could be shown interacting (Isaac Asimov).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="stopbath">
<B>stop bath,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> an acid solution used to halt the developing process in photography; shortstop. </DL>
<A NAME="stopcock">
<B>stopcock, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a device for turning the flow of a liquid or gas on or off; faucet; valve. </DL>
<A NAME="stope">
<B>stope, </B>noun, verb, <B>stoped,</B> <B>stoping.</B><DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a steplike excavation in a mine to take out the ore after shafts have been sunk. <DD><I>v.t., v.i. </I> to mine in stopes. <BR><I>expr. <B>stope out,</B> </I>to stope. <BR> <I>Ex. to stope out salt.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="stopgap">
<B>stopgap, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> <B>1. </B>a thing or person that fills the place of something lacking; temporary substitute. <BR> <I>Ex. We ought to send them our surplus food and clothing as a stopgap, until we can do something more permanent for them (Atlantic).</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>an utterance intended to fill up a gap or an awkward pause in conversation or discourse. <BR> <I>Ex. a mere conversational stopgap, to be dropped now that the real business could be commenced (H. G. Wells).</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> serving as a stopgap. <BR> <I>Ex. U.S. economists consider stabilization plans only short-term, stopgap methods of straightening out world markets (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="stopgo">
<B>stop-go, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> (British.) <DD><I>noun </I> a period or condition of alternating inflation and deflation; go-stop. <BR> <I>Ex. The victims of stop-go and unemployment are union members (Manchester Guardian Weekly).</I> <DD><I>adj. </I> of or characterized by stop-go. <BR> <I>Ex. a stop-go economy.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="stopknob">
<B>stop knob,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a handle used to turn an organ stop on or off; stop. </DL>
<A NAME="stoplight">
<B>stoplight, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a red light on the rear end of a vehicle that turns on automatically when the brakes are applied. <DD><B> 2. </B><B>=traffic light.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="stoploss">
<B>stop-loss, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of the nature of or having to do with a stop order. <BR> <I>Ex. Stop-loss orders have not been much of a factor in the price decline (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="stopmotion">
<B>stop motion,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a method of taking motion pictures at extended intervals so that a slow movement or process, such as the opening of a flower, will appear much accelerated; time-lapse photography. adj. <B>stop-motion.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="stopoff">
<B>stopoff, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> (U.S. Informal.) a stopover. </DL>
