stop
pronunciation
How to pronounce stop in British English:
UK [stɒp]
How to pronounce stop in American English:
US [stɑːp]
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- Noun:
- the event of something ending
- the act of stopping something
- a brief stay in the course of a journey
- the state of inactivity following an interruption
- a spot where something halts or pauses
- a consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it
- a punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations
- (music) a knob on an organ that is pulled to change the sound quality from the organ pipes
- a mechanical device in a camera that controls size of aperture of the lens
- a restraint that checks the motion of something
- an obstruction in a pipe or tube
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- Verb:
- come to a halt, stop moving
- put an end to a state or an activity
- stop from happening or developing
- interrupt a trip
- cause to stop
- prevent completion
- hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of
- seize on its way
- have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
- render unsuitable for passage
- stop and wait, as if awaiting further instructions or developments
Word Origin
- stop
- stop: [14] ‘Close an opening, plug’ is the original meaning of stop. It comes via Old English *stoppian (recorded only in compounds) from a prehistoric Germanic *stoppōn ‘plug up’ (source also of English stuff). The sense ‘halt’ emerged in Middle English from the notion of ‘preventing a flow by blocking a hole’.=> stuff
- stop (v.)
- Old English -stoppian (in forstoppian "to stop up, stifle"), a general West Germanic word, cognate with Old Saxon stuppon, West Frisian stopje, Middle Low German stoppen, Old High German stopfon, German stopfen "to plug, stop up," Old Low Frankish (be)stuppon "to stop (the ears)." These words are said by many sources to be a Germanic borrowing of Vulgar Latin *stuppare "to stop or stuff with tow or oakum" (source of Italian stoppare, French étouper "to stop with tow"), from Latin stuppa "coarse part of flax, tow." In support of this theory, it is said that plugs made of tow were used from ancient times in Rhine valley. Century Dictionary says this "suits phonetically," but "is on grounds of meaning somewhat doubtful." Barnhart, for one, proposes the whole Germanic group might be native, from a base *stoppon. Sense of "bring or come to a halt, discontinue" (mid-15c.) is from notion of preventing a flow by blocking a hole, and the word's development in this sense is unique to English, though it since has been widely adopted in other languages; perhaps influenced by Latin stupere "be stunned, be stupefied." Intransitive meaning "check oneself" is from 1680s. Meaning "make a halt or stay, tarry" is from 1711. Stop-light is from 1922; stop-sign is from 1918. Stop-motion is from 1851, originally of looms. Related: Stopped; stopping.
- stop (n.)
- late 14c., "a plug;" mid-15c., "a cessation," from stop (v.). Of mechanisms of musical instruments from c. 1500, especially of organs, where opening them makes it produce more sound, hence figurative phrase pull out the stops (1909). From 1660s in phonetics, 1831 in photography. Meaning "a stopping place" is from 1889. To put a stop to some activity is from 1670s (earlier give a stop to, 1580s).
Example
- 1. You can 't stop the united states .
- 2. As our motor coach lurched to a stop , everyone sprang up .
- 3. He can 't stop fiddling with it .
- 4. We then called sara , who gave us directions for our second stop .
- 5. Anderson did not stop there .