From Middle Englishstoppen, stoppien, from Old Englishstoppian(“to stop, close”), from Proto-West Germanic*stuppōn, from Proto-Germanic*stuppōną(“to stop, close”), *stuppijaną(“to push, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European*(s)tewp-, *(s)tewb-(“to push; stick”), from *(s)tew-(“to bump; impact; butt; push; beat; strike; hit”). Cognate with Saterland Frisianstopje(“to stop, block”), West Frisianstopje(“to stop”), Dutchstoppen(“to stop”), Low Germanstoppen(“to stop”), Germanstopfen(“to be filling, stuff”), Germanstoppen(“to stop”), Danishstoppe(“to stop”), Swedishstoppa(“to stop”), Icelandicstoppa(“to stop”), Middle High Germanstupfen, stüpfen(“to pierce”). More at stuff, stump.
Alternate etymology derives Proto-Germanic *stuppōną from an assumed Vulgar Latin*stūpāre, *stuppāre(“to stop up with tow”), from stūpa, stīpa, stuppa(“tow, flax, oakum”), from Ancient Greekστύπη(stúpē), στύππη(stúppē, “tow, flax, oakum”). This derivation, however, is doubtful, as the earliest instances of the Germanic verb do not carry the meaning of "stuff, stop with tow". Rather, these senses developed later in response to influence from similar sounding words in Latin and Romance.
Verb
stop (third-person singular simple presentstops, present participlestopping, simple past and past participlestopped)
(intransitive) To cease moving.
(intransitive) To not continue.
(transitive) To cause (something) to cease moving or progressing.
(transitive) To cease; to no longer continue (doing something).
(transitive) To cause (something) to come to an end.
(transitive) To close or block an opening.
(transitive, intransitive, photography, often with "up" or "down") To adjust the aperture of a camera lens.
(intransitive) To stay; to spend a short time; to reside or tarry temporarily.
1887, R. D. Blackmore, Springhaven
by stopping at home till the money was gone
1931, E. F. Benson, Mapp & Lucia, chapter 7
She’s not going away. She’s going to stop here forever.
(music) To regulate the sounds of (musical strings, etc.) by pressing them against the fingerboard with the finger, or otherwise shortening the vibrating part.
(obsolete) To punctuate.
if his sentences were properly stopped
(nautical) To make fast; to stopper.
(phonetics, transitive) To pronounce (a phoneme) as a stop.
th-stopping
Conjugation
Usage notes
This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund (-ing) to indicate the ending action, or the to infinitive to indicate the purpose of the interruption. See Appendix:English catenative verbs for more information.
Synonyms
(to cease moving):brake, desist, halt; See also Thesaurus:stop
(to not continue):blin, cease, desist, discontinue, halt, terminate; See also Thesaurus:desist
(to cause to cease moving):arrest, freeze, halt; See also Thesaurus:immobilize
(to cause to come to an end):blin, cancel, cease, discontinue, halt, terminate; See also Thesaurus:end
(to tarry):hang about, hang around, linger, loiter, pause; See also Thesaurus:tarry
(to reside temporarily):lodge, stop over; See also Thesaurus:sojourn
Antonyms
(to cease moving):continue, go, move, proceed
(to not continue):continue, proceed
(to cause to cease moving):continue, move
(to cause to come to an end):continue, move
Hyponyms
Derived terms
Related terms
the buck stops here
Descendants
→ Finnish: stop
→ French: stop
→ Hungarian: stop
→ Irish: stop
→ Italian: stop
→ Latvian: stop
→ Polish: stop
→ Portuguese: stop
→ Russian: стоп(stop)
→ Spanish: stop
→ Welsh: stopio
Translations
Noun
stop (pluralstops)
A (usually marked) place where buses, trams or trains halt to let passengers get on and off, usually smaller than a station.
Related terms: halt, station.
An action of stopping; interruption of travel.
1722, Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year
It is […] doubtful […] whether it contributed anything to the stop of the infection.
Occult qualities put a stop to the improvement of natural philosophy.
It is a great step toward the mastery of our desires to give this stop to them.
That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; an obstacle; an impediment.
A fatal stop trauerst their headlong course
a. 1729, John Rogers, The Advantages of conversing with good Men
So melancholy a prospect should inspire us with zeal to oppose some stop to the rising torrent.
A device intended to block the path of a moving object
(engineering) 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.
(architecture) A member, plain or moulded, formed of a separate piece and fixed to a jamb, against which a door or window shuts.
(linguistics) A consonant sound in which the passage of air through the mouth is temporarily blocked by the lips, tongue, or glottis.
Synonyms:plosive, occlusive
A symbol used for purposes of punctuation and representing a pause or separating clauses, particularly a full stop, comma, colon or semicolon.
(music) A knob or pin used to regulate the flow of air in an organ.
(music) 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.
(tennis) A very short shot which touches the ground close behind the net and is intended to bounce as little as possible.
(zoology) The depression in a dog’s face between the skull and the nasal bones.
(photography) A part of a photographic system that reduces the amount of light.
(photography) A unit of exposure corresponding to a doubling of the brightness of an image.
(photography) An f-stop.
The diaphragm used in optical instruments to cut off the marginal portions of a beam of light passing through lenses.
(fencing) A coup d'arret, or stop thrust.
Derived terms
Translations
References
Punctuation
stop
Used to indicate the end of a sentence in a telegram.
Translations
Etymology 2
From Middle Englishstoppe, from Old Englishstoppa(“bucket, pail, a stop”), from Proto-Germanic*stuppô(“vat, vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European*(s)teub-(“to push, hit; stick, stump”). Cognate with Norwegianstopp, stoppa(“deep well, recess”), Middle High Germanstubech, stübich(“barrel, vat, unit of measure”) (German Stübchen). Related also to Middle Low Germanstōp(“beaker, flask”), Middle High Germanstouf(“beaker, flask”), Norwegianstaupa(“goblet”), Icelandicstaupa(“shot-glass”), Old Englishstēap(“a stoup, beaker, drinking vessel, cup, flagon”). Cognate to Albanianshtambë(“amphora, bucket”). See stoup.
Noun
stop (pluralstops)
(Britain dialectal) A small well-bucket; a milk-pail.
Translations
Etymology 3
s- + top
Adjective
stop (not comparable)
(physics) Being or relating to the squark that is the superpartner of a top quark.
Anagrams
OTPs, POST, POTS, PTOs, Post, Spot, TPOs, opts, post, post-, post., pots, spot, tops
Danish
Verb
stop
imperative of stoppe
Dutch
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /stɔp/
Hyphenation: stop
Rhymes: -ɔp
Etymology 1
From Middle Dutchstoppe.
Noun
stopm (pluralstoppen, diminutivestopjen)
An action of stopping, cessation.
A plug for a sink, a stopper.
An electric fuse.
Synonyms:smeltstop, zekering
Derived terms
smeltstop
stopcontact
stoppenkast
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the main entry.
Verb
stop
first-person singular present indicative of stoppen
imperative of stoppen
Anagrams
post
spot
Finnish
Interjection
stop
stop (halt)
stop (end-of-sentence indicator in telegrams)
Synonyms
(halt):seis
French
Etymology
1792. Borrowed from Englishstop.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /stɔp/
Interjection
stop!
stop!
Noun
stopm (uncountable)
stop sign
hitchhiking
Related terms
auto-stop
stop-motion
stopper
Descendants
→ Moroccan Arabic: سطوب
Further reading
“stop” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Anagrams
pots, spot
Hungarian
Etymology
Borrowed from Englishstop.
Pronunciation
IPA(key): [ˈʃtopː], [ˈʃtop]
Rhymes: -opː, -op
Interjection
stop
halt! stop!
Punctuation
stop
stop(used to indicate the end of a sentence in a telegram)
Noun
stop (pluralstopok)
(colloquial) stop sign (a red sign on the side of a street instructing vehicles to stop)
(colloquial) hitchhike (an act of hitchhiking, trying to get a ride in a passing vehicle while standing at the side of a road)
Declension
Derived terms
stopfürdő
stoptábla
Irish
Etymology
Borrowed from Englishstop, from Middle Englishstoppen, from Old Englishstoppian(“to stop, close”), from Proto-Germanic*stuppōną(“to stop, close”).
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /sˠt̪ˠɔpˠ/
Verb
stop (present analyticstopann, future analyticstopfaidh, verbal nounstopadh, past participlestoptha)
a stop(place to get on and off line buses or trams; interruption of travel; device to block path)
Declension
Synonyms
stad
Further reading
“stopaid”, in Gregory Toner, Maire Ní Mhaonaigh, Sharon Arbuthnot, Dagmar Wodtko, Maire-Luise Theuerkauf, editors, eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language, 2019
"stop" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
Italian
Etymology
Borrowed from Englishstop.
Interjection
stop!
stop!, halt!
Noun
stopm (pluralstop)
stop (roadsign; bus stop etc; block)
Anagrams
post
spot
Latvian
Etymology
Borrowed from Englishstop.
Interjection
stop!
stop!, halt!
Polish
Pronunciation
IPA(key): /stɔp/
Etymology 1
Deverbal of stopić.
Noun
stopm inan
(chemistry) an alloy; a mixture of metals.
Declension
Synonyms
aliaż(obsolete)
Verb
stop
second-person singular imperative of stopić
Etymology 2
Borrowed from Englishstop.
Interjection
stop
stop!, halt!
Noun
stopm inan
a stop sign.
(colloquial) a vehicle's brake light.
(colloquial) hitchhiking.
Further reading
stop in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
stop in Polish dictionaries at PWN
Portuguese
Etymology
Borrowed from Englishstop.
Pronunciation
(Brazil) IPA(key): /ˈstɔp/, /ˈstɔ.pi/
Noun
stopm (pluralstops)
stop(function or button that causes a device to stop operating)
(uncountable) A game in which the players write on paper one word from each category (animal, fruit, etc.), all beginning with the same letter, as quickly as possible. In Spanish: tutti frutti.
(stock market)stop loss order(order to close one’s position if the market drops to a specified price level)
(Brazil, upper-class slang)stop; end(the act of putting a stop to something)
Interjection
stop!
Said by a player of the game of stop to cease the current turn, after which the players count how many words they wrote.
See also
CEP(acronym of "cidade, estado, país", meaning "city, state, country", a category in the game of stop)
STOOZE, to borrow money at an interest rate of 0%, a rate typically offered by credit card companies as an incentive for new customers. (source: Collins Scrabble Dictionary)