2. To obstruct; to render impassable; as, to stop a way,
road, or passage.
3. To arrest the progress of; to hinder; to impede; to shut
in; as, to stop a traveler; to stop the course of a
stream, or a flow of blood.
4. To hinder from acting or moving; to prevent the effect or
efficiency of; to cause to cease; to repress; to restrain;
to suppress; to interrupt; to suspend; as, to stop the
execution of a decree, the progress of vice, the
approaches of old age or infirmity.
Whose disposition all the world well knows Will not
be rubbed nor stopped. --Shak.
5. (Mus.) To regulate the sounds of, as musical strings, by
pressing them against the finger board with the finger, or
by shortening in any way the vibrating part.
6. To point, as a composition; to punctuate. [R.]
If his sentences were properly stopped. --Landor.
7. (Naut.) To make fast; to stopper.
Syn: To obstruct; hinder; impede; repress; suppress;
restrain; discontinue; delay; interrupt.
{To stop off} (Founding), to fill (a part of a mold) with
sand, where a part of the cavity left by the pattern is
not wanted for the casting.
{To stop the mouth}. See under {Mouth}.
He bites his lip, and starts; Stops on a sudden,
looks upon the ground; Then lays his finger on his
temple: strait Springs out into fast gait; then
stops again. --Shak.
2. To cease from any motion, or course of action.
Stop, while ye may, suspend your mad career!
--Cowper.
3. To spend a short time; to reside temporarily; to stay; to
tarry; as, to stop with a friend. [Colloq.]
By stopping at home till the money was gone. --R. D.
Blackmore.
{To stop over}, to stop at a station beyond the time of the
departure of the train on which one came, with the purpose
of continuing one's journey on a subsequent train; to
break one's journey. [Railroad Cant, U.S.]
It is doubtful . . . whether it contributed anything
to the stop of the infection. --De Foe.
Occult qualities put a stop to the improvement of
natural philosophy. --Sir I.
Newton.
It is a great step toward the mastery of our desires
to give this stop to them. --Locke.
2. That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; as obstacle; an
impediment; an obstruction.
A fatal stop traversed their headlong course.
--Daniel.
So melancholy a prospect should inspire us with zeal
to oppose some stop to the rising torrent. --Rogers.
3. (Mach.) 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.
4. (Mus.)
(a) The closing of an aperture in the air passage, or
pressure of the finger upon the string, of an
instrument of music, so as to modify the tone; hence,
any contrivance by which the sounds of a musical
instrument are regulated.
The organ sound a time survives the stop.
--Daniel.
(b) In the organ, one of the knobs or handles at each side
of the organist, by which he can draw on or shut off
any register or row of pipes; the register itself; as,
the vox humana stop.
5. (Arch.) A member, plain or molded, formed of a separate
piece and fixed to a jamb, against which a door or window
shuts. This takes the place, or answers the purpose, of a
rebate. Also, a pin or block to prevent a drawer from
sliding too far.
6. A point or mark in writing or printing intended to
distinguish the sentences, parts of a sentence, or
clauses; a mark of punctuation. See {Punctuation}.
7. (Opt.) The diaphragm used in optical instruments to cut
off the marginal portions of a beam of light passing
through lenses.
8. (Zo["o]l.) The depression in the face of a dog between the
skull and the nasal bones. It is conspicuous in the
bulldog, pug, and some other breeds.
9. (Phonetics) Some part of the articulating organs, as the
lips, or the tongue and palate, closed
(a) so as to cut off the passage of breath or voice
through the mouth and the nose (distinguished as a
lip-stop, or a front-stop, etc., as in p, t, d, etc.),
or
(b) so as to obstruct, but not entirely cut off, the
passage, as in l, n, etc.; also, any of the consonants
so formed. --H. Sweet.
{Stop bead} (Arch.), the molding screwed to the inner side of
a window frame, on the face of the pulley stile,
completing the groove in which the inner sash is to slide.
{Stop motion} (Mach.), an automatic device for arresting the
motion of a machine, as when a certain operation is
completed, or when an imperfection occurs in its
performance or product, or in the material which is
supplied to it, etc.
{Stop plank}, one of a set of planks employed to form a sort
of dam in some hydraulic works.
{Stop valve}, a valve that can be closed or opened at will,
as by hand, for preventing or regulating flow, as of a
liquid in a pipe; -- in distinction from a valve which is
operated by the action of the fluid it restrains.
{Stop watch}, a watch the hands of which can be stopped in
order to tell exactly the time that has passed, as in
timing a race. See {Independent seconds watch}, under
{Independent}, a.
Syn: Cessation; check; obstruction; obstacle; hindrance;
impediment; interruption.