Stop

Stop, stop, v.t. to stuff or close up: to obstruct: to render impassable: to hinder from further motion, progress, effect, or change: to restrain, repress, suppress, suspend: to intercept: to apply musical stops to: to regulate the sounds of a stringed instrument by shortening the strings with the fingers: (naut.) to make fast.—v.i. to cease going forward: to cease from any motion or action, to stay, tarry: to leave off: to be at an end: to ward off a blow:—pr.p. stop′ping; pa.t. and pa.p. stopped.—n. act of stopping: state of being stopped: hinderance: obstacle: interruption: (mus.) one of the vent-holes in a wind instrument, or the place on the wire of a stringed instrument, by the stopping or pressing of which certain notes are produced: a mark used in punctuation: an alphabetic sound involving a complete closure of the mouth-organs: a wooden batten on a door or window-frame against which it closes: a stop-thrust in fencing.—ns. Stop′-cock, a short pipe in a cask, &c., opened and stopped by turning a cock or key; Stop′-gap, that which fills a gap or supplies a deficiency, esp. an expedient of emergency; Stop′-mō′tion, a mechanical arrangement for producing an automatic stop in machinery, as for shutting off steam, &c.; Stop′page, act of stopping: state of being stopped: an obstruction; Stop′per, one who stops: that which closes a vent or hole, as the cork or glass mouthpiece for a bottle: (naut.) a short rope for making something fast.—v.t. to close or secure with a stopper.—ns. Stop′ping, that which fills up, material for filling up cracks, &c., filling material for teeth: Stop′ping-out, the practice in etching of covering certain parts with a composition impervious to acid, to keep the acid off them while allowing it to remain on the other parts to mark them more; Stop′-watch, a watch whose hands can be stopped to allow of time that has elapsed being calculated more exactly, used in timing a race, &c. [M. E. stoppen—O. Fr. estouper (Ice. stoppa, Ger. stopfen, to stuff); all from L. stupa, the coarse part of flax, tow.]