Stop v.

Pa. t. and pa. pple. stopped, † stopt. Also 4–6 stoppe, 4–7 stopp, 4 stope; Sc. 4, 7 stope, (6 stoip), 6, 8–9 stap. [OE. *stoppian (only in forstoppian, occurring once: see sense 8 a and cf. FORSTOP v.) corresponding to OLow Frankish (be)stuppôn to stop (the ears), (M)Du., (M)LG. stoppen (whence Icel., Sw. stoppa, Da. stoppe), WFris. stopje, MHG., mod.G. stopfen, to plug, stop up; a Com. WGer. adoption of popular L. or Rom. *stuppāre to stop or stuff with tow or oakum (evidenced by It. stoppare, Pr., Sp. estopar, OF. estouper, mod.F. étouper), f. L. stuppa tow (It. stoppa, Sp. estopa, OF. estoupe). The sense ‘bring or come to a stand’ is a specially English development, but in marine and railway use the Eng. word has been widely adopted in other langs., as F. stopper, G., Du. stoppen, Sw. stoppa, Da. stoppe.

  The AF. estopper (latinized estoppare), whence ESTOP v., is to be regarded as adopted from the Eng. verb rather than as a variant of OF. estouper.]

  I.  To fill up, plug, close up.

  1.  trans. To close up (an aperture) by stuffing something into it, by building it up, or by placing something before it. a. To block up (a way of entrance or exit, an aperture for the passage of light, air, sound, and the like). Also with up.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xxiii. (Seven Sleepers), 164. Þai … of þe cawe þe mouth of stane stopyt wele.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xxix. 132. Þe ȝates þat Alysaundre gert stoppe with grete stanes and syment.

1480.  Coventry Leet Bk., 460. The seid dore owe to be stopped vp.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., IV. i. 165. Shut that, and ’twill out at the key-hole: stop that, ’twill flie with the smoake out at the chimney.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., X. 457. Stop the holes of the doore with double Matts.

1744.  M. Bishop, Life & Adv., 22. My Business was to stop the Touchhole whilst the other spunged it.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Stop the Vent, to close it hermetically by pressing the thumb to it.

1891.  Rider Haggard, Nada, xv. The gates [of the kraal] were stopped with thorns.

  fig.  1596.  Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., IV. i. 71. Wee … Must … stop all sight-holes, euery loope, from whence The eye of reason may prie in vpon vs. Ibid. (1605), Macb., I. v. 45. Stop vp th’ accesse and passage to Remorse, That no compunctious visitings of Nature Shake my fell purpose.

  † b.  To close the mouth of (a pit or hole). Obs.

1382.  Wyclif, 2 Kings iii. 19. And alle the wellis of watirs ȝe schuln stoppen.

a. 1425.  Cursor M., 6726 (Trin.). If any mon makeþ a pit And siþen wol not stoppe hit If ox or asse or oþere beest Falle þerinne [etc.].

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 477/2. Stoppyn a pytte or an hole, opilo, obstruo, obturo.

  c.  To block the mouth of (an animal’s hole or earth); spec. in Foxhunting (see quots. 1686, 1897). † Also with up. Also, to block up the earths in (a particular district).

1530.  Palsgr., 736/2. I stoppe a hoole or an yerth of any beest in the ground, je bouche.… I have stoppyd all the foxys hooles and therefore he can nat scape us.

1576.  Turberv., Venerie, 192. The Huntsman which would haue good pastime at this vermine, shall do well to stop vp his earthes.

1686.  Blome, Gentl. Recr., II. 88. Having found a Foxes Earth, about Midnight … cause all his Holes to be stopt … except the main Hole or Eye,… which stop not until about Daybreak, for fear of stopping him in.

1781.  P. Beckford, Th. Hunting, xxiii. 306. [Digging of foxes.] Stop all the holes, lest the fox should bolt out unseen. Ibid., 308. [Oxford toast.] Hounds stout, and horses healthy, Earths well stopp’d, and foxes plenty.

1878.  ‘Brooksby,’ Hunting Countries, II. 198. For the border meets of either [Hunt] the neighbouring territory is always ‘stopped’ by the other.

1897.  Encycl. Sport, I. 547/2. (Hunting), It was his [sc. the earth-stopper’s] duty to proceed to the earths situated in the country which was to be drawn the next day, and carefully to stop them with earth or faggots about the hour of midnight.

  d.  To close with the finger or with a mechanical substitute (a ventage or finger-hole of a wind-instrument) in order to produce a particular note.

1832.  Brewster, Nat. Magic, viii. 204. Seven of these regulated the motions of the seven fingers for stopping the holes of the flute.

  e.  Said of the obstruction: To block, choke up. Also in passive, to be choked up with (dirt, etc.). Now chiefly with up.

1508.  Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 99. And gory is his tua grym ene … And gorgeit lyk twa gutaris that wer with glar stoppit.

1576.  Turberv., Venerie, 193. When your Terriers are out of breath, or that the Belles [on their collars] are stopped and glutted vp with earth.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. i. 87. This Aiax … Has not so much wit … As will stop the eye of Helens Needle.

1648.  J. Beaumont, Psyche, VIII. clxxvi. His mouth the coal-black foam here stoping.

1864.  Pusey, Daniel, 416. Of a well the whole [entrance] was … covered … by a stone,… to keep it … from being stopped by sand.

1885.  Law Times’ Rep., LII. 723/1. One of the stack pipes was stopped up with leaves and dirt.

  † f.  intr. in passive sense: To become choked up. Obs.

1576.  Turberv., Venerie, 194. The Colerake to clense the hole and to keepe it from stopping vp.

1712.  J. James, trans. Le Blond’s Gardening, 197. Quills which … have but one Hole for the Water to issue at … not being so subject to stop, as the flat ones.

1792.  Trans. Soc. Arts, X. 52. Injured … by a leading land-ditch stopping, which overflowed that part of the field.

  † 2.  absol. To make a closure or obstruction. Obs.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 72. Ase ȝe muwen iseon þe water, hwon me punt hit, & stoppeð biuoren wel, so þet hit ne muwe aduneward, þeonne is hit ined aȝein uor to climben upward.

  3.  trans. To make (a way) impassable by blocking up its passage or outlet.

  a.  To block, choke up (a road, channel, harbor, and the like). Also with up.

13[?].  K. Alis., 1224. He stopped [Laud MS. forstopped] heore way, y-wis, That ther no myghte, to heore fode, Come to heom no gode.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, XVII. 306. The schippis com in sic plente,… That all the havyn wes stoppit then.

1544.  Betham, Precepts War, I. lii. D j b. Yf thou wylt stoppe an hauen (my consayle is) to fyll a shyppe full of greate stones, and then to drowne the same shyp, ouerthwarte in the hauen.

1588.  T. Hughes, Misfort. Arthur, III. iii. 10. The mustering traines Stop vp the streetes.

1667.  Milton, P. L., X. 291. Mountains of Ice, that stop th’imagin’d way Beyond Petsora Eastward.

1790.  Beatson, Nav. & Mil. Mem., I. 159. The enemy sunk the ship at the mouth of the harbour, which stopped up the channel.

1831.  Society, I. 276. The Countess of Avon’s carriage stopping the way.

1848.  Dickens, Dombey, lvii. Warehouses, with waggons at the doors, and busy carmen stopping up the way.

1911.  Crockett, Smugglers, xix. On the other [side of the hall] was a stand for the bicycle … which partially stopped the fairway.

  fig.  1596.  Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 344. The Balie had stopet the way of freindschip betueine him and ffrance.

1644.  Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 48. Evill manners are as perfectly learnt without books a thousand other ways which cannot be stopt.

1882.  A. Bain, James Mill, iii. 88. He had induced Sir Francis Burdett to offer to transfer the interest of £1000,… but legal difficulties stopped the way.

  b.  To close (a road) to the public. Also with up.

  In this sense to stop up implies a physical barrier; the simple verb may refer to a mere prohibition of passage.

1423.  Coventry Leet Bk., 56. The said hyȝe way þat leedyth from Allysley way to Coundull is stoppyd, wher hit owȝte to be open.

1598.  Stow, Surv. Lond., 187. The other end [of the lane] is builded on and stopped vp by the Chamberlaine of London.

1684.  Bunyan, Pilgr., ii. 65. These ways are since stopt up with Chains, Posts, and a Ditch.

1821.  Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 50. Inclosure came, and every path was stopt.

1885.  Law Rep., 14 Q. B. Div. 747. The railway company had … altered and stopped up a certain road.

  c.  To stop one’s way: to stand in one’s way, bar one’s passage, oppose one. lit. and fig.

1338.  R. Brunne, Chron. (1725), 179. Slayn alle may þou se, þat þi way stopped [AFr. les vayes estopaynt].

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., III. ii. 237. Touch her who euer dare, Ile bring mine action on the proudest he That stops my way in Padua.

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, II. 918. I went; but sad Creusa stopp’d my way, And cross the Threshold in my Passage lay.

  4.  To fill up, repair, make good (a breach, hole, crevice, or defective place of any kind). Also with up. So to stop a leak (lit. and fig.).

  To stop a gap: see GAP sb.¹ 1, 2.

1388.  Wyclif, 2 Esdras iv. 7. Whanne Sanaballat hadde herd … that the brekyng of the wal of Jerusalem was stoppid [Vulg. quod obducta esset cicatrix muri].

c. 1450.  St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 4088. Hay or clay to him he toke, And stoppid creuys in ilk a noke.

1523–34.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 127. And to pleche downe the bowes of the same tree, to stoppe the holowe places [in a hedge] … yf all the holowe and voyde places wyll not be fylled and stopped, than scoure the old dyche, and cast it vp newe.

1582.  N. Lichefield, trans. Castanheda’s Conq. E. Ind., I. lxxv. 153 b. Willyng them not to bee a fearde, but to goe forwarde in stopping the leake.

1665.  Phil. Trans., I. 80. The Chinks are stopt with Parchment pasted or glewed upon them.

1724.  Ramsay, Health, 295. He causes stop each cranny in his room.

1771.  Encycl. Brit., II. 515/2. (Etching) The operator must be attentive to the ground, that it does not fail in any part, and where it does to stop up the place with the above composition.

1901.  W. R. H. Trowbridge, Lett. her Mother to Eliz., vi. 27. It would cost such a lot to stop the leaks in a seven-acre roof.

  fig.  1593.  Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., V. ii. 83. We shall to London get,… where this breach now in our Fortunes made May readily be stopt.

1597.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. ix. § 2. There will … be alwaies … breaches and leakes moe then mans wit hath hands to stop.

c. 1616.  Bacon, Advice to Villiers, in Cabala (1663), 43. His Majesty in his time hath religiously stopped a leak that did much harm.

  b.  To plug (the seams of a boat) with oakum, tow, or other caulking material; † to caulk (a ship). Also to stop up.

1535.  Coverdale, Ezek. xxvii. 9. The eldest and wysest at Gebal were they, that mended & stopped thy shippes.

1585.  Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 223/2. To stoppe the ioynts of ships with mosse, okam, or tow: properly called to calke.

1865.  Visct. Milton & W. B. Cheadle, Northwest Passage by Land, ii. 24. The continual leaking of our rickety canoes obliged us to … spend hours in attempting to stop the seams.

  c.  Plastering, House-painting, etc. To fill up or make good the holes in (a surface to be covered with a wash, paint, or other material); † to close (the joints of brick-work), to ‘point’ (POINT v.¹ 8 a).

1557–8.  in W. H. St. John Hope, Windsor Castle (1913), I. 258. To the same for painting prymering stoping gilding and varnishing of a greate Lyon. Ibid. (1680–2), 321. John Grove Plaisterer for washing stopping and Whiting the Kings and Queens Backstaires, [etc.].

1693.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 245. A Brick Trowel to … stop the joints.

1842.  Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., V. 337/2. The walls … of a light buff colour, rubbed down and stopped.

1903.  Hasluck, House Decoration, viii. 117. Priming must be done before stopping the work…. When dry, the work is rubbed down … and all nail-holes are stopped with putty.

  d.  Dentistry. To fill the cavity of (a decayed tooth) with a stopping.

1592.  Lyly, Midas, III. ii. If your tooth be hollow it must be stopt, or puld out.

1657.  J. Cooke, trans. J. Hall’s Sel. Observ. Engl. Bodies, 87. To stop the tooth with a little Camphire.

1896.  Baden-Powell, Matabele Campaign, xii. One had his teeth peculiarly stopped with gold.

1907.  H. Wales, The Yoke, xi. He [a dentist] stopped a tooth for me two years ago most unsatisfactorily and caused me needless pain.

  e.  Glazing. To fasten (a quarrel or pane of glass) in a window; to putty (glass) in a sash.

1533.  in W. H. St. John Hope, Windsor Castle (1913), I. 262. For stopyng off vij quarelles in the same window.

1858.  Skyring’s Builders’ Prices, 93. Crown Glass, Stopped in Old Sashes.

  † 5.  To mend (a garment); to make good or mend (cloth, metal-work) with an inferior material.

c. 1481.  Caxton, Dialogues, viii. 34. Euerard the vpholster Can well stoppe [Fr. estoupper] A mantel hooled.

1541.  Act 33 Hen. VIII., c. 18 § 3. Nor shall falsefye or untrulie make or stoppe any manner Kerseyes withe flockes [etc.].

1645.  in W. M. Williams, Ann. Founders’ Co. (1867), 98. No Founder … shall fill or stop with Lead and Brass Works made up by them.

  † 6.  To stanch the bleeding of, bind up (a wound). Obs. (Cf. 14 d.)

13[?].  Sir Beues, 1936. A keuerchef to him a drouȝ … To stope mide is wonde.

c. 1400.  Siege Jerus. (E.E.T.S.), 48. Leches … Waschen woundes with wyn & with wolle stoppen.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, XIV. x. 654. Thenne he stopped his bledyng wounde with a pyece of his sherte.

1599.  Warn. Faire Wom., II. 579. O stoppe my woundes if ye can. Old Iohn. Ioane, take my napkin and thy apron, and bind vp his wounds.

  fig.  1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., V. v. 40. Now ciuill wounds are stopp’d, Peace liues agen.

1602.  Chettle, Hoffman, I. (1631), B 2. My hart still bleeds Nor can my wounds be stopt, till an incision I’ue made to bury my dead father in.

  7.  To close (a vessel or receptacle) by blocking its mouth with a cover, plug, or other stopper; similarly, to close (the mouth of a vessel); also, to shut up (something) in a stoppered vessel. Also with down, up.

c. 1420.  Liber Cocorum (1862), 34. And do hit [venison] in a barel þenne;… Stop wele þo hede for wynde and sone.

a. 1425.  trans. Arderne’s Treat. Fistula, etc. 92. Putte þat liquour … into a vessel aȝeyn and stoppe þe vessel þat þer come none aier out.

c. 1460.  Play of Sacrament, 629, in Non-Cycle Myst. Plays, 77. I stoppe thys ovyn, wythowtyn dowte, With clay … That non heat shall cum owte.

1558.  Warde, trans. Alexis’ Secr., 31 b. Hauinge putte and left all these thinges in a violle well stopped, the space of two dayes.

1588.  Marprel. Epist. (Arb.), 11. For men wil giue no mony for your book, vnles it be to stop mustard pots.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 552. Afterwards they put them vp in glasses, and stop the mouth close.

1634.  Peacham, Compl. Gentl., viii. (1906), 71. Having as it were given you a taste, and stopped up the vessell againe.

1712–4.  Pope, Rape Lock, II. 126. Whatever spirit … His post neglects … Shall … Be stopp’d in vials, or transfix’d with pins.

1737.  Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 176. Keep it close stopped in a Bottle for Use.

1766.  Complete Farmer, s.v. Vinegar, Which being drawn off … and preserved in another cask, well stopped down, will continue perfect, and fit for use.

1826.  Art of Brewing (ed. 2), 5. The beer in the cellar carefully stopped up.

1869.  Tyndall, Notes Lect. Light, § 148. 22. A tube of any kind stopped watertight will answer for this experiment.

  b.  Organ-building. To close (an organ pipe at its upper end) with a plug or cap.

1782.  W. Hooper, Rational Recr. (ed. 2), II. 231. The wooden pipes [of the organ] are square, and their extremity is stopped with a valve or tampion of leather.

1879.  Organ Voicing, 25. This in either case will be a 4-ft. pipe, stopped.

  8.  To obstruct the external orifice of (a bodily organ) by putting something in or on it or by pressing the parts together.

  a.  To stop (one’s own or another’s) ear or ears. Also fig., to render oneself deaf to something, refuse to listen, to close one’s mind against arguments, etc.

[c. 1000.  Sax. Leechd., II. 42. Ʒenim þonne þæt seaw … do on þa ilcan wulle wring on eare & mid þære ilcan wulle forstoppa þat eare.]

1340.  Ayenb., 257. Stoppe þine earen mid þornes, and ne hyer naȝt þe queade tongen.

1382.  Wyclif, Prov. xxi. 13. Who stoppeth his ere at the cri of the pore.

c. 1440.  Jacob’s Well, 217. Þerfore stoppe þis gate of þin erys fro þe feend.

1565.  Cooper, Thesaurus, Obdere ceram auribus, to stoppe the eares with waxe.

1578.  H. Wotton, Courtlie Controv., 58. Hee perceyued hir eares stopped, and hearte hardened agaynste all perswasions of consolation.

1594.  in Cath. Rec. Soc. Publ. (1908), V. 289. It is thought he had stopped his ears with wull at his deathe, for he never answered word to any thinge they said.

1607.  Hieron, Discov. Hypocr., 11. When Steuen preached, there was shouting and stopping the eares.

1747.  Wesley, Prim. Physick (1759), 56. Drop three or four Drops into the Ear,… and stop it with black Wool.

1815.  J. Cormack, Abol. Fem. Infanticide Guzerat, viii. 127. The avarice of the Jahrejahs, which was so powerful as to stop the ear against the most tender pleadings of nature.

1830.  Forrester, II. xi. 201. ‘Oh! horrid, horrid!’ exclaimed Peggy, stopping her ears.

1896.  A. E. Housman, Shropshire Lad, xix. And silence sounds no worse than cheers After earth has stopped the ears.

  b.  To stop (one’s own or another’s) mouth: lit., as with a gag or muzzle; fig. to compel or induce to be silent; occas. † to satisfy (a person’s) appetite. Also, to stop the mouth of (a lion), to prevent him from devouring his prey.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 17438. Thise knyghtes anon we yeftes bede That we may stoppe her mowthe with mede.

1382.  Wyclif, Heb. xi. 33. Thei stoppiden the mouthis of lyouns.

c. 1450.  Mirk’s Festial, 58. The þrid skylle was forto stoppe mowthes, lest þay had sayde þat þay dyd not þe lawe.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Rich. III., 40. Some saie y^t he had a smal office or a ferme to stoppe his mouthe with al.

1599.  Shaks., Much Ado, II. i. 321. Speake cosin, or (if you cannot) stop his mouth with a kisse, and let not him speake neither.

1632.  J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 28. The Baron of Ianque … (lest the Lady Admirall should cry out) held close her mouth stopt up with the sheetes.

1648.  Bp. Hall, Breath. Devout Soul, 35. Under heaven there can be no bounds set to this intellectuall appetite: O do thou stop the mouth of my soul with thy self, who art infinite.

1714.  Budgell, trans. Theophrastus, ii. 9. He … stops his Mouth with his Handkerchief that he may not laugh out.

1722.  Wollaston, Relig. Nat., vii. 148. The controversy may be fairly decided, and all mouths eternally stopped.

1781.  Cowper, Conversat., 480. Give it the breast, or stop its mouth with pap!

1859.  FitzGerald, Omar, xxv. Their Words to Scorn Are scatter’d, and their Mouths are stopt with Dust.

1888.  ‘J. S. Winter,’ Bootle’s Childr., xiv. They wanted to know … who it was, and—and I just said it was my sister by way of stopping their mouths.

  c.  To stop one’s nose, nostrils. ? Obs.

c. 1420.  Sir Amadace (Camden), vii. Butte suche a stinke in the chapelle he hade, That … He stopput his nace with his hude.

1565.  Larke, Bk. Wisdom, H iv. They passed by a place where there was a deade Horse, which dyd stynke verie sore, wherfore the Heremite did stoppe his nose.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., IV. ii. 77. Heauen stoppes the Nose at it, and the Moone winks.

1681.  Dryden, Abs. & Achit., II. 457. Now stop your noses, Readers, all and some, For here’s a tun of Midnight work to come. Ibid. (1697), Virg. Georg., IV. 423. They stop his Nostrils, while he strives in vain To breath free Air.

  † d.  To stop (a person’s) eyes or sight: to cover the eyes with a bandage, the hand, or other obstruction to the sight; also = to shut one’s eyes. Obs.

c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 1162. Þe bond þat is fysage was bounde wyþ to stoppen is louely siȝt, Þay ounbounde.

1530.  Palsgr., 737/1. I stoppe ones eyes, I cover them with my hande, or with a clothe, that he shall nat se.

a. 1677.  Barrow, Creed (1697), 28. We cannot without stopping our eyes exclude that light.

  9.  To close up, choke, obstruct (a canal, duct, passage or pipe in the animal body); to block the passage or passages of (a bodily organ). Also with up.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., III. xviii. (1495), d vj. And yf y^t sinew [sc. the auditory nerve] be stopped or greued w^t some euyll, y^t lettyth thoffyce therof.

c. 1530.  Judic. Urines, II. iv. 22. As somtyme the bladder and sometyme the necke of the bladder is stopped … and stuffed and dystempred throgh excesse of vnkynde hete.

1573–5.  Gascoigne, Flowers, Wks. 1907, I. 81. The smoulder stops our nose with stench.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. 141. The frostye grasse at this time of yeere, doo stoppe their heades with rhume.

1837.  P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 394. If the passage through the nostrils should happen to be stopped up, as by a cold, or by any internal swelling.

  In fig. context.  1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. i. 65. To … purge th’ obstructions, which begin to stop Our very Veines of Life.

  † b.  pass. Of a person: To be afflicted with an obstruction of the bodily passages or organs. Obs.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 300. Þe blood … wole boile vpward to þe brest,… þat þe pacient schal be ful nyȝ stoppid [L. quod patiens suffocatur].

1541.  W. C., Bk. Prop. Herbes, A v b. It is medicinable and curable for those men that be stopped in the breste.

1579.  Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 252/1. As these men whiche haue bene a great while in a stincking place, become, as it were stopped.

  † c.  Stop my vitals (see STAP).

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Stop my Vitals, a silly Curse in use among the Beaux. [Cf. STAP 1696–1839.]

  † d.  To make costive, to bind. Also absol. Obs.

1545.  Elyot, Dict., Aluum sistere, to stoppe or bynde.

1548.  Elyot’s Dict., s.v. Sisto, Aluum sistere, to stoppe or bynde the bealy.

1584.  Cogan, Haven Health, N j. Bread that cometh hotte from the ouen is vnholsome. The reason is, bycause it stoppethe moche.

1631.  Widdowes, Nat. Philos., 45. It stoppeth the belly, and nourisheth but little.

1733.  W. Ellis, Chiltern & Vale Farm., 281. The one [fodder] to scour them, the other to stop and fat them.

  † 10.  To shut up, block up (a person or thing in a place). Also with adv. in, up. Obs.

c. 1315.  Shoreham, Poems, VII. 578. Wy nedde hy [devils] be ine helle y-stopped For euere mo.

a. 1340.  Hampole, Pr. Consc., 7368. Þai salle be pressed togyder swa harde, Als þai war stopped togyder in ane oven.

a. 1400.  Minor Poems fr. Vernon MS., xxix. iv. 122. Thi hosebonde haþ my child ibrent, I-stopped him in a glouwyng houen.

a. 1400–50.  Wars Alex., 5496. And raryfey, a rich ray, he in þe roche stoppis.

c. 1440.  Alphabet of Tales, 227. As þis mason was brekand ane old wall, he fand a grete som of golde stoppyd in a hole.

c. 1440.  Pallad. on Husb., IV. 959. For thy yf combes ronke of hony wepe, Thre dayes stopped vp at home hem kepe.

1576.  Turberv., Venerie, 196. When you haue stopped them in thus.

1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., I. ii. 53. Stop in your winde sir, tell me this I pray? Ibid. (1594), Rich. III., I. iv. 38. But still the enuious Flood Stop’d in my soule, and would not let it forth.

1634.  W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp. (1865), 38. The English … do crosse the Creekes with long seanes or Basse Netts, which stop in the fish.

1693.  J. Warder, True Amazons (1713), 96. Prevented by a timely stopping up of the Bees, I do not mean by stopping them up quite.

  † b.  To stop out: to shut out, exclude. To stop off: to keep back (a crowd). Obs.

c. 1530.  Tindale, Jonas (title), With what keyes it is so opened that the reader can be stopped out with no sotilte or false doctrine of man.

1685.  Stillingfl., Orig. Brit., iv. 174. Nothing would ever be able to stop out the Arian Heresie but the Nicene Faith.

1722.  in Rutland Mag. (1905), II. July, 68. Pd. to ye men y^t stop’t off the crowd.

  † c.  To exclude from. Obs.

1567.  Gude & Godlie Ball., 81. The decreit, and scharp hand wryte, That stoppit vs fra the Father quyte, Furth of the myndis he withdrew.

  11.  To thrust, push (a thing, more rarely a person) in, into a receptacle or place; also, † to thrust (a boat under water). Chiefly Sc.

c. 1375.  Sc. Leg. Saints, xxxiii. (George), 458. And tak he gert salt smal & stope in til his wondis al.

a. 1572.  Knox, Hist. Ref., Wks. 1846, I. 204. A galay … was so doung with the cannoun and other ordinance, that she was stopped under watter, and so almost drowned.

1607.  Markham, Caval., VII. 26. Take two little round balles of flaxe or soft towe, and dipping them therein, stop them into the horses eares.

1686.  trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 134. He caus’d this Vizier to be stopp’d into the mouth of a cannon.

1704.  N. N., trans. Boccalini’s Advts. fr. Parnass., I. 108. She stopt these Billet-deux into her Master’s Hand.

1871.  W. Alexander, Johnny Gibb, xvii. 125. I … throws on my waistcoat an staps my feet in’o my sheen.

1915.  G. Sinclair, Poems, 122. A wee black box was stappit Amang the frozen clay.

  b.  Sc. and north. To thrust in the point or end of (a thing), to insert; to put in (a plant), hence to stop in, to plant.

1731.  J. Moncrief, Poor Man’s Physician, in H. G. Graham, Soc. Life Scot. in 18th C. (1901), I. vii. 52. Stop the finger into a cat’s ear and it will be whole in half an hour.

1826.  Galt, Last of Lairds, xxxviii. I planted that [tree]…; I dibbled the yearth, and stappit it in there.

1828.  Carr, Craven Gloss., ‘To stop in,’ to plant.

1829.  Brockett, N. C. Gloss. (ed. 2), Stop, to thrust; e.g. to stop the poker into the fire.

1896.  A. J. Armstrong, Cobblers o’ Kirkiebrae, 167 (E.D.D.). He … staps pushioned preens through bonnie wee butterflies.

  † c.  To press (a thing) to the nose. Obs.

1607.  Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 553. Some Marchants when they are to buy muske stop it to their noses, and holding their breath run halfe a stones cast, afterwards they pul it from their Nose.

  12.  To cram (a receptacle with something); also to stop full. Obs. exc. Sc.

c. 1400.  Melayne, 1289. Þay … with grete stones Graythe gounnes stoppede those gones, With peletes vs to payne.

c. 1420.  Liber Cocorum (1862), 34. Take tenderons of sauge with owte lesyng, And stop one fulle up to þo ryng.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe (Globe), 579. We stopped his [the idol’s] Eyes, Ears, and Mouth, full of Gun-Powder.

1768.  Ross, Helenore, 137. Then I’ll bang out my beggar dish, An’ stap it fou o’ meal.

1814.  A. Wilson, Loss o’ the Pack, 19. Dear I lo’ed her, and … Stapped her pouches fu’ o’ preens and laces.

  † b.  To stuff, pad (a dummy, garment, cushion, etc., with straw, flock or other material). Obs.

c. 1400.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), IV. xxix. (1859), 61. Ymages made of clothe, stopped with strawe.

1525.  Ld. Berners, Froissart, II. xliv. 59 b/2. The heed [of the dart] perced all the plates of his cote of mayle and a iacke stopped with sylke.

1620.  in W. O. Blunt, Ch. Chester-le-Street (1884), 85. For flockes to stopp the quishions, 2s.

1621.  Markham, Hungers Prevention, 50. Stoping it with dry Strawe [etc.] … let it [the Stalking-horse] be painted as neere the colour of a Horse as you can deuise.

1626.  B. Jonson, Staple of N., II. iv. Hee has offer’d To … preserue Each haire falls from him to stop balls with all.

  † c.  Cookery. To fill (the inside of a bird, a fruit, and the like) with herbs, spices, etc., preparatory to cooking. Also, to stop full. Cf. STUFF v.

1342–3.  [see STOPPED ppl. a. 1].

c. 1390.  Forme of Cury, xxxiv. (1780), 25. Take persel and sawge…, take garlec and grapes and stoppe the Chikennes ful.

c. 1420.  Liber Cocorum, 48. Fyrst stop þy capone with saveray, With persyl, a lytil ysope.

c. 1450.  Douce MS. 55 (Bodl.), xxvii. lake quinces and stopp hem whith ynne with hole pepyr.

1541.  W. C., Bk. Prop. Herbes, G j b. Thys is called Persly … and it is good in potage and to stoppe chyckens.

1599.  H. Buttes, Dyets drie Dinner, M ij. Lamprey … stop the mouth with a Nut-meg, and the other holes with Cloves: then fry it.

  † d.  Dicing. To load (dice). Obs.

1596.  Lodge, Wits Miserie, 41. As for Dice, he hath all kind of sortes,… some stopt with quick siluer, some with gold, some ground. Ibid. He stabs if you touch his stake, and stop me his dice, you are a villaine.

  † e.  To plug (the feet of a horse) with something as a dressing; also, to pad (a horse) round the body with straw. Obs.

1577.  B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. 122 b. You must stop his hoofes with Cowe doung. Ibid., 123. For al halting [of horses]…. Mingle Hemp with the white or an egge, and stop the foote with all.

1614.  Markham, Cheap & Good Husb., I. i. 8. Walke not nor wash not [your horse] at all,… but set him vp warme, well stopt, and soundly rubbed with cleane litter. Ibid. Stop not your horses fore-feete with Cowes-dung, till hee be sufficiently cold. Ibid. (1623), I. v. (ed. 3), 51. Cloath him, and stop him round with wispes. Ibid., 52.

1852.  Burn, Naval & Mil. Techn. Dict., II. s.v., To stop a horse’s feet, remplir les pieds d’un cheval.

  13.  To press down (the tobacco in a pipe) with or as with a tobacco-stopper.

1848.  Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, xix. 167. He stopped the tobacco in his pipe with his little finger.

  II.  To bring to a stand.

  14.  trans. To prevent the passage of by blocking the channel or outlet. a. To dam, keep back, block the channel of (water, a stream, and the like). Also with advs. back, up.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IV. iv. (1495), e vij b. Clyffes & strondes stoppen and hold in the flood of the see.

1421.  Coventry Leet Bk., 31. With filthe, dong and stonys the watur [is] stoppyd of his cours.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. iv. 11. The bankes are ouerflowen, when stopped is the flood.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Past., VIII. 4. The Rivers stood on heaps, and stopp’d the running Flood.

1776.  Gibbon, Decl. & F. (1787), II. xviii. 108. By the labour of the Persians, the course of the river was stopped below the town, and the waters were confined.

c. 1790.  Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), V. 100/1. A frame-work … closely calked, will stop back the whole or the greatest part of it [water in a mine].

1821.  Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 136. Boys came … Stopping up the mimic rills, Till they forc’d their frothy bound.

  transf. and fig.  1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., IV. i. 12. Her Father … hasts our marriage, To stop the inundation of her teares.

1622.  Fletcher & Mass., Prophetess, III. iii. It is not in thy power to turn this destiny, Nor stop the torrent of those miseries.

1835.  T. Mitchell, Acharn. of Aristoph., 651, note. A princess, high-minded, yet gentle, with the current of her feelings stopped, when their tide ran purest.

  b.  To intercept (light, air, heat, etc.). To stop out, to exclude. Also, † to exclude the light from (a thing).

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XXI. 285. Ac rys vp ragamoffyn, And reche me alle þe barres … And ich shal lette þis lorde, and hus light stoppe; Ar we þorw bryghtnesse be blent.

1508.  Stanbridge, Vulgaria (W. de W.), B iv. Thou stoppest my light, Interpellas lumen.

1530.  Palsgr., 700/1. I shadowe a thyng, I stoppe it that it can nat apere clerely, je fais vmbre.

1538.  Elyot, Dict., Obstruere luminibus, to lette that a manne canne not loke out of hys wyndowes, or to stoppe his lyghtes.

1594.  1st Pt. Contention (1843), 39. York. … Duke Humphrey … well made away, None then can stop the light to Englands Crowne.

1619.  W. Whately, Gods Husb., i. (1622), 39. To turne day into night, by shutting the windowes … to stop out the Sun-shine.

1856.  W. B. Carpenter, Microscope, 129. The object (provided it be of a nature to stop enough light) is seen bright upon a dark field.

1892.  Photogr. Ann., II. 194. These will form rabets and stop out the wind and weather.

  c.  To stop the breath (more rarely the wind) of: to prevent the respiration of, to suffocate, stifle, choke; hence, to cause to die. † Also with up.

c. 1400.  Maundev. (Roxb.), xxii. 99. Þe preste … castez a clath on his mouth and stoppez his wynde.

1534.  More, Comf. agst. Trib., III. xx. S vj. If the doore shoulde be shutte vpon me, I would weene it would stoppe vp my breath.

1581.  Pettie, Guazzo’s Civ. Conv., I. (1586), 42. Those which blow forth such blasts [of slander], deserue to haue their winde stopt with a halter.

1652.  C. B. Stapylton, Herodian, XVIII. xxxiv. They rusht into his Tent and stopt the breath Of all save few.

1780.  R. Tomlinson, Slang Pastoral, 11. Will no blood-hunting foot-pad … Stop the wind of that nabbing-cull, constable Payne?

1785.  Burns, Death & Dr. Hornbook, ix. Ye’re maybe come to stap my breath.

  d.  To stanch (bleeding, blood).

1573–5.  Gascoigne, Adv. Mr. F. J., Wks. 1907, I. 390. When they … had all in vayne sought many waies to stoppe hir bleeding.

1685.  in P. Wright, New Bk. Martyrs (1784), 795/2. Lord, if it be thy holy will, stop this issue of christian blood, and let my guiltless blood be the last spilt on this account.

1748.  Richardson, Clarissa, VII. 414. The motion set both his wounds bleeding afresh; and it was with difficulty they again stopped the blood.

1825.  Scott, Talism., xiv. He … stopped with styptics and bandages the effusion of blood which followed. Ibid., xxviii. Its [the stone’s] virtues are still applied to for stopping blood.

  15.  To arrest the onward movement of (a person or thing); to bring to a stand or state of rest; to cause to halt on a journey; also, to prevent the departure or starting of. † Const. of (one’s passage) and with double obj. by omission of of.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 477/2. Stoppyn, or wythe stondynge a beest of goynge or rennynge, sisto, obsto.

1523.  Ld. Berners, Froissart, I. ccccxxxiii. 308/2. But they were nat men ynowe to stoppe theym their way.

1530.  Palsgr., 736/2. I stoppe a thefe that is ronnyng a waye, je arreste. Stoppe the thefe for Godes sake.

1590.  Nashe, 1st Pt. Pasquil’s Apol., A 4. If I muster and traine my men a newe, that the enemies of God … may be stopt of theyr passage and driuen backe.

1614.  Bacon, Charge touching Duels, 33. In case I be aduertised of a purpose in any to goe beyond the sea to fight, I may haue granted his Maiesties writ of Ne exeat regnum to stoppe him.

1665.  Manley, Grotius’ Low-C. Warres, 315. The Prince … sending before some Horse, which should hinder and stop the Enemy, at the Passage over the Maes.

1670.  G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. III. 82. A Cardinal stops his Coach to another that is his Senior.

a. 1700.  Evelyn, Diary, 29 Oct. 1660. Going to London, my Lord Maior’s shew stopp’d me in Cheapside.

1714.  Swift, Hor. Sat., II. vi. 111. I’m stopp’d by all the Fools I meet, And catechis’d in ev’ry street. Ibid. (1726), Gulliver, I. ii. We found our fingers stopt with that lucid substance.

1761.  Lond. Chron., 24–26 Dec., 622/2. Thursday night three highwaymen stopped several waggons on Northall Common.

1809.  Med. Jrnl., XXI. 218. The catheter … appeared to be stopt by the neck of the bladder.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., xiv. Tressilian and his attendants were stopped and questioned repeatedly by sentinels.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxiii. 164. I was at length stopped by the dislocated ice.

1867.  S. W. Baker, Nile Trib., v. 97. The common belief that the scales of a crocodile will stop a bullet is very erroneous.

1876.  J. W. Barry, Rlwy. Appliances, 293. The responsibility of stopping a train in all other emergencies is given without question to the engine-driver.

1901.  T. R. Glover, Life & Lett. Fourth Cent., vii. 157. To declare war on him, means to stop the corn-ships at once.

  b.  Stop thief! a cry for help to arrest a running thief. Also slang (see quot. 1857).

1714.  A. Smith, Lives Highwaymen (ed. 2), I. 67. He espy’d Cox,… and crying out Stop Thief, he was apprehended in St. Clement’s Church-Yard.

1758–65.  Goldsm., Ess., vi. [xxi.] (Globe), 303/2. I had not gone far from the house when I heard behind me the cry of ‘Stop thief!’

1857.  ‘Ducange Anglicus,’ Vulgar Tongue, 20. Stop Thief, meat stolen. ‘I have got this piece of stop thief.’ I stole this piece of raw meat. Th[ieves].

1887.  Times, 26 Aug., 10/2. Accused escaped, but prosecutor having called out ‘Stop thief’ he was apprehended.

  c.  To bring down (a bird) with the gun. Also, to arrest the rush of (a charging enemy or wild beast) with rifle-fire. (Said also of the bullet and of the wound produced.)

1862.  Ld. W. Lennox, Recreat. Sportsm., I. 151. At the first [pigeon-shooting] handicap Moncrieff stopped a bird at seventy-five yards.

1892.  Greener, Gun (ed. 5), 208. An 8-bore [rifle] will frequently fail to stop the charge.

1896.  Times, 16 Dec., 5/2. The task of making a Lee-Metford bullet which, without losing its ranging powers, should still inflict a wound sufficiently severe to stop even the most determined fanatics.

1898.  G. W. Steevens, With Kitchener to Khartum, xxxiii. 285. The officer assailed put a man-stopping revolver bullet into him, but it did not stop him.

  d.  Fencing, Pugilism, etc. To check (an adversary, his stroke, weapon, etc.) with a counter movement or stroke; to counter (a blow, a manœuvre in wrestling, etc.) Also to stop short.

1714.  Parkyns, Inn-Play (ed. 2), 47. [Wrestling.] Then go to the Flying Mare, and if he stops that, give him your Elbow under his Chin.

1765.  Angelo, Sch. Fencing, 26. You may stop his blade short, by keeping your wrist [etc.].

1771.  Lonnergan, Fencer’s Guide, 82. Make a stamp with your foot, and thrust forward at me; thus you stop me. Ibid., 83. Then finish in a Quarte-over-the-arm in like manner with a Stop. Thus you stop in Low Quarte.

1823.  ‘Jon Bee,’ Dict. Turf, 214. Stop a blow, (ring), to prevent its alighting on the part intended by means of the guard, or position of defence, i. e. the fore-arm or elbow.

1840.  D. Walker, Defensive Exerc., 14. [Wrestling.] It is sometimes possible to stop the hipe by clapping the knees instantly together. Ibid., 67. [Single-stick.] The usual blow at the head…. To stop this, raise the hand a little.

1889.  A. Hutton, Cold Steel, 34. The vertical cut 7, if given at the head, should be stopped by the Head parry.

  absol.  1857.  G. A. Lawrence, Guy Livingstone, iv. 32. His adversary … stopped and countered as coolly as if he had only the gloves on.

1865.  A. L. Gordon, Ye Wearie Wayfarer, IV. iv. Poems 1912, 19.

  16.  In certain games. a. Tennis. (a) To keep off (the ball) from the dedans, winning-gallery, or grille. † (b) absol. ? To mark or record the stops or chases.

  (a)  1822.  [R. Lukin], Treat. Tennis, in J. Marshall, Tennis (1878), 196. To stop the ball, that is, merely to prevent it entering the dedans, &c., is not sufficient.

1895.  G. J. Manson, Sporting Dict., Stop, to prevent (by a volley) a ball from entering an opening.

  (b)  1530.  Palsgr., 737/1. I stoppe on ones syde, as one that is a stoppar in a tenes play or at the foote ball, je garde. I wyll stoppe on your syde.

a. 1548.  Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 98 b. On saterday the kyng & the Emperor playd at tennice … agaynst the princes of Orenge and the Marques of Brandenborow, & on the Princes syde stopped the Erle of Deuonshyre aud the lorde Edmond on the other syde.

  † b.  Cricket. (a) or a batsman: To play (a ball) defensively, without attempting to hit it away. Also absol. (b) absol. Of a fieldsman: To field the ball, to act as fieldsman. To stop behind, to act as longstop. Obs.

  (a)  1833.  Nyren, Yng. Cricketer’s Tutor (1902), 34. How to stop a shooting-ball dropped short of a length…. This backward movement will give you a better sight of the ball, and more time for stopping it. Ibid., 150. Every loose, hard hitter would learn to stop, and play as safe a game as possible.

1856.  Househ. Words, 2 Feb., 59/2. They cut a good deal oftener and stop much less, perhaps, than they used to do.

  (b)  1744.  Love, Cricket (1754), I. 11. Expert to bowl, to run, to stop, to throw.

1833.  Nyren, Yng. Cricketer’s Tutor (1902), 22. No substitute in the field shall be allowed to … stop behind to a fast bowler.

  17.  To intercept and detain in transit.

1604.  E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, VII. xxvi. 576. Where they continued many daies, stopping their victuals, nor suffering any to enter or issue forth.

1661.  Marvell, Corr., Wks. 1875, II. 51. I have yours of 22, I wish you had had mine of 19^th, but all were stopped.

1667.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., Penalties & Forfeit., To Merchants (1669), n 2 b. Your Goods have been seised … and Ships stopp’d and hindred in their Voyages.

  18.  To withhold (a sum of money) in paying wages or other debt, on the ground of some counterclaim.

1427.  Coventry Leet Bk., 113. And þat hit be rered be þe comen seriant, or els þat hit be stopped vppon the hire of þe seid comen seriant.

1495–6.  Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 220. Item, payd to thomas Mundys,… wyche he stoppyth in his hondes in party payment that is owyng hym for nayll, the quitrent that belongyth to owre chyrch.

1538.  Elyot, Dict., Resignatum æs, wages stopped for negligent seruice in warres.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., V. i. 24. And Sir, doe you meane to stoppe any of Williams Wages about the Sacke he lost … at Hinckley Fayre?

1612–3.  Fletcher, Coxcomb, IV. (1647), 111/2. [Viola has broken a glass] Moth. Did you so? be sure I’le stop it, ’twill make a good gap in your quarters wages.

1668.  in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 61. Your Grace was pleased to order the said fees to be stopt in the hands of the King of Armes.

1734.  Pope, Sat. Hor., II. ii. 63. Nor stops, for one bad cork, his butler’s pay.

1741.  Col. Rec. Pennsylv., IV. 510. Since £1,500 out of the £2,500 said to be Expended has been stopt out of my support.

1832.  Min. Evid. Comm. Factories Bill, 203. They stop 1s. a week of every hand upon the premises.

1887.  Spectator, 9 July, 932/1. A new kit was now supplied to him, and sixpence a day stopped out of his money to pay for it.

  indirect passive.  1802.  C. James, Milit. Dict., s.v. Stoppages, Soldiers are directed to be stopped one shilling and sixpence per week.

  † b.  To deprive (a person) of his pay. Obs.

1594.  1st Pt. Contention, ix. 44. Tis thought my lord, your grace … stopt the soldiers of their paie.

  c.  To stop it out: to save the cost of a thing by economizing in (something else). colloq.

1863.  Mrs. Craik, Mistress & Maid, xii. ‘It will do no harm to enquire the price. I might stop it out in omnibuses.’ For this was the way every new article of dress had to be procured—‘stopping it out’ of something else.

  d.  To withhold (goods) as security or in lieu of payment.

1761.  Ann. Reg., IV. Chron., 123. An action brought against a carrier for stopping a goose … because the gentleman did not pay the porter a shilling for … carrying it to the gentleman’s house.

1864–5.  Trollope, Can you forgive her? iii. What do you think of Mrs. Green wanting to charge me for an extra week, because she says I did not give her notice till Tuesday morning? I won’t pay her, and she may stop my things if she dares.

  19.  To give instructions to a banker not to cash (a bank note, bill, or the like). Similarly to stop payment (of a note).

1713.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4619/11. It being stop’d at the Bank.

1722.  Post Man, 16–19 June, 2/1. With several Notes in it, being of no Value to any but the Owner, Payment being stopt.

1722.  De Foe, Col. Jack (1840), 21. They [the bills] would be stopped.

1884.  E. Yates, Recoll., II. 194. The numbers of the notes were known, payment of them was stopped.

1892.  Cordingley, Commerc. Guide, 63. To ‘stop’ a cheque, in cases where it has been lost or stolen, is to give written instructions to the banker it is drawn upon not to pay the cheque when presented.

  20.  To cause (a person) to desist from or pause in a course of action or conduct. Const. from, in, † of; also with gerund as second obj. Also to stop short, to check abruptly.

  Orig. a fig. use of sense 15, often with reference to a metaphorical way or course.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. V. 150. Mede … on men of lawe gan wynke, in sygne þat þei sholde, with som sotel speche Reherce þo a-non ryght, þat myghte reson stoppe.

1561.  T. Hoby, trans. Castiglione’s Courtier, I. (1900), 76. It is a stray out of the way in which he would have profited, had he not bene stopped in it.

1592.  Kyd, Span. Trag., III. xiv. 74. My L., it lyes not in Lorenzos Power To stop the vulgar, liberall of their tongues.

1611.  Bible, 2 Cor. xi. 10. No man shall stop mee [marg., Gr. this boasting shal not be stopped in me.] of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.

1816.  Scott, Old Mort., xliv. What can be done to stop him from running headlong on ruin?

1837.  Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. V. iii. Your National Assembly, stopped short in its Constitutional labours, may, [etc.].

Mod.  I wish you would stop him circulating those rumors.

  b.  To cause (a person) to break off in narrative or speech. Const. from, in. Also to stop short.

1545.  Elyot, Dict., s.v. Opprimo, Opprimere orationem alicuius, to stoppe one in his tale.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., II. i. 199. I cannot speake enough of this content, It stoppes me heere.

1697.  J. Lewis, Mem. Dk. Glocester (1789), 23. But when my Lady Governess … began to tell the Duke the sad news, he stopped her.

1784.  P. Wright, New Bk. Martyrs, 795/2. He then was stopped from saying any more.

1825.  Scott, Betrothed, xviii. The chaplain had arrived at some convenient pause in the lecture, where the Archbishop stopped him with, ‘Satis est, mi fili.’

1889.  Gretton, Memory’s Harkback, 121. ‘Yes, my lord; but——’ Garrow stopped him short. ‘Not one word more, sir, if you please.’

  c.  To cause (a thing) to cease action. Now rare.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 415. Was neuere werre in þis worlde … so kene Þat ne … pees þorw pacience, alle perilles stopped.

138[?].  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 360. And þus þe puple myȝte wiþdrawe þer almes fro wickide preestis, and þe pride of preestis shulde be stoppid, bi which þei envenemyn þe puple.

1593.  Shaks., 3 Hen. VI., III. iii. 14. From such a cause, as fills mine eyes with teares, And stops my tongue.

1672.  Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.), Rehearsal, IV. i. (Arb.), 101. Hold, stop your murd’ring hands.

1777.  W. Dalrymple, Trav. Sp. & Port., iv. I fortunately came in and stopped her hand.

  21.  To restrain or prevent (a person) from a contemplated action. Const. as in 20.

c. 1490.  Henry, Wallace, IX. 30. He leit no word than walk off his passage, Or Inglismen had stoppit him his wiage.

1530.  Palsgr., 737/1. I stoppe, I hynder or let one of any purpose that he is about, je empesche.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., II. i. 187. Now, from the Oracle They will bring all, whose spirituall counsaile had Shall stop, or spurre me.

1697.  J. Lewis, Mem. Dk. Glocester (1789), 22. I was ordered … to go … for Dr. Radcliffe,… but Mr. Pierce … told them he was in no danger, and we were stopt.

1801.  J. Thomson, Poems Sc. Dial., 15. So whan ye find yoursells incline To steal a rag,… O! stop yoursells o’ that design.

1874.  Ruskin, Fors Clav., IV. xxxix. 69. If any one likes to go, nobody will stop them.

1908.  R. Bagot, A. Cuthbert, vii. 66. He was about to place the chair near to that of the lady,… but Jim stopped him.

Mod.  Why didn’t you stop him sending that letter?

  † b.  Law. To bar, hinder, preclude. Const. from, to with inf. = ESTOP 2. Obs.

1534.  trans. Lyndewode’s Const. Provinc., 39 b. The free testament makynge is let and the chyrche, & other aboue named, be malyciously stopped from theyr ryght.

1595.  Shaks., John, II. i. 562. Iohn to stop Arthurs Title in the whole, Hath willingly departed with a part.

1711.  in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874), 141. And all others perills burdens dangers and inconveniences … which may anywayes stop trouble or prejudge them in the peaceable possession thereof.

  c.  To stay, suspend (proceedings); to prevent (a decree, etc.) from taking effect.

1690.  Acts of Sederunt (1790), 185. Where any act, decreet or protestation being pronounced, without debate in the cause, is thereafter stopped upon application of one of the parties.

1774.  Bp. Hallifax, Anal. Rom. Civil Law (1795), 126. An Inhibition is issued from the Superior Court to the Inferior, to stop Proceedings.

  † 22.  To hamper, hinder, impede the course or progress of (affairs, a project, etc.); to hinder (a person) in action or in some proceeding. Sometimes with clause as object. Obs.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 159. Where worldly prestis schullen for here … ydelnesse & pride stoppe cristene men to knowe god.

1436.  Libel Eng. Policy, in Pol. Poems (Rolls), II. 178. For this wee see welle every day at eye, Geftes and festes stopene oure pollicye.

1538.  Starkey, England, 36. Puttyng in exercyse many honest and vertuse affectys of mannys mynd, wych els schold be … stoppyd and let by penury and pouerty.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., I. ii. 35. What blacke Magitian coniures vp this Fiend, To stop deuoted charitable deeds?

1721.  Ramsay, Prospect of Plenty, 105. The Dutch, say they, will strive your plot to stap.

  23.  To cause to cease, put an end to (a movement, activity, course of events).

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 10105. But Pollexena … Abated the bremmes in his bale yre, And stoppet the strif of his strong hert.

1426.  W. Paston, in P. Lett., I. 26. I wot not whether it were best in any sermon or other audience … to declare aught of this matier in stoppyng of the noyse that renneth in this case.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 64. But stoppe it [suspicyon] betyme, and suffre it neuer to growe to iudgement.

a. 1670.  Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1850), II. 337. Quhilk wold give the Southland men aneuche ado, and stop thair cuming heir.

1820.  Shelley, Œdipus Tyr., II. ii. 40. For God’s sake stop the grunting of those Pigs!

1827.  Scott, Chron. Canongate, v. But I stopped her doubts, by assuring her it had been part and pendicle thereof in my forefathers’ time.

1831.  Greville, Mem. (1874), II. 158. Gurney overheard one juryman say to another, ‘Don’t you think we had better stop the case? It is useless to go on.’

1848.  Mill, Pol. Econ., III. ix. § 2 (1876), 306. Even if this small annual supply were stopt entirely.

1898.  ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, xviii. 193. In plain English, it is murder, and it must be stopped at any cost. You understand?

  b.  To prevent the coming-on of.

1538.  Starkey, England, 180. Or thys we must have regard, and stoppe al occasyon therof as much as we may.

1608.  Shaks., Per., I. ii. 98. With thousand doubts How I might stop this tempest ere it came.

1840.  Thackeray, Barber Cox, Jan. I … popped my shaving brush into Mr. Bar’s mouth—a capital way to stop angry answers.

1891.  Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, viii. It was only with difficulty that Seneca and Burrus had been able to stop more tragedies.

  24.  To cease from, discontinue (an action, employment, etc.).

1525.  Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. ccxxxvii. 306 b/2. Whan they had this warnynge they stopped their commyng to the kyng.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., V. iii. 54. Stop thy vnhallowed toyle, vile Montague. Ibid. (1599), Hen. V., II. iv. 69. Turne head, and stop pursuit.

1795.  Gentl. Mag., LXV. II. 539/1. Barley was so dear that brewers had stopped brewing.

1818.  Scott, Br. Lamm., xxi. Prithee, stop thy gambling cant for one instant.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxvi. I say I will not have it: and Dobbin, I beg, sir, you’ll stop it.

1853.  M. Arnold, Scholar Gypsy, xii. The blackbird picking food Sees thee, nor stops his meal, nor fears at all.

1860.  Denison, Clocks & Watches (ed. 4), 343. The clock stopped striking.

1878.  Jevons, Primer Pol. Econ., 66. Nobody should be allowed suddenly to stop work in a way endangering other people.

  b.  To stop payment: to declare oneself unable to meet one’s financial obligations. Also in shortened form to stop.

1766.  Blackstone, Comm., II. xxxi. 479. It has been determined expressly, that a banker’s stopping or refusing payment is no act of bankruptcy.

1818.  Scott, Rob Roy, xxii. But what will that be to the news that Osbaldistone and Tresham have stopped!

1864.  Mrs. Riddell, Geo. Geith, xxxv. III. 29. The bank has stopped payment.

1879.  Ruskin, Lett., 31 Oct., Wks. 1908, XXXIV. 238. Written contracts are all very well, but if the contractor stops payment—where are you!

1898.  W. J. Greenwood, Commerc. Corresp. (ed. 2), 40. The house mentioned in yours of the 3rd inst. is daily expected to stop payment.

  c.  To put an end to the issue of (an allowance).

1839.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., viii. She has … stopped his … pocket-money.

1865.  H. Kingsley, Hillyars & Burtons, xxvi. Suppose, sir, that I was … to stop your allowance?

  25.  To cause (a machine or piece of mechanism) to cease working or going. To stop the press: to suspend the operation of printing (esp. in order to give opportunity to make some insertion).

1538.  Elyot, Dict., Sufflamen, that wherwith a whiele is retained or stopped of his course.

1703.  De Foe, in 15th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. IV. 76. I shall continue to stop the press in this case till I hear your opinion.

1765.  Bickerstaff, Maid of Mill, I. 1–2. Stop the mill there; and dost hear, son Ralph! hoist yon sacks of flour upon this cart lad.

1815.  Morn. Chron., 22 June, 3/2. We stop the press to announce the most brilliant and complete Victory ever obtained by the Duke of Wellington.

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 237. To stop the engine, the cocks at K and Y should be shut.

1860.  in Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Watches, etc. (1871), 51. Mechanism … for stopping and starting watches.

1883.  M. P. Bale, Saw-Mills, 32. A new method of stopping engines by electricity.

  26.  To arrest the oscillation, vibration, or unsteady motion of; to keep immovable or steady.

1669.  Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., VII. xxix. 42. Let a stander by stop one end of a Thred on the Glass at D. Ibid., V. xii. 78. The Piece to be Mounted higher or lower, until you bring the Bead … and the Mark all in one Line, stop the Piece in that position with a Coyn.

  27.  Mus. To press down (a string of a violin, lute, and the like) with the finger (rarely with a key) in order to shorten its vibrating length and thereby produce certain intermediate sounds; hence, to produce (a note, sound) by this means; to use (a finger) for this purpose. Also with down.

c. 1500.  in Grose, Antiq. Repert. (1809), IV. 406. In myddest of the body [of the Lute] the stryngis sowndith best, For stoppide in the freytes they abydeth the pynnes wrest.

1574.  F. Ke, trans. A. Le Roy’s Instruct. Lute, 64 b. Thou muste also vnderstande, how, and with whiche fingers the strynges of the Lute must be stopped. Ibid., 68 b. The first .C. of the first stoppe … must be stopped with the seconde finger.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 156. In Lutes, and Instruments of Strings, if you stop a String high … the Sound is more Treble.

1676.  Mace, Musick’s Mon., 84. Then be ready to stop down (β,) with the Fore-finger. Ibid., 85. After your Stopt Note … you are not to take up that Finger, which you last Stopt, until necessity require.

1784.  in Abridgm. Specif. Patents, Music (1871), 15. The manner of stopping the British lyre is … peculiar to the instrument, which instead of being stopped by the fingers … is stopped and the tone given by small keys.

1867.  Macfarren, Harmony, i. 8. An instrument such as the violin whose notes are stopped by the fingers.

  absol.  1762.  Sterne, Tr. Shandy, V. xxv. I will this moment stop three hundred and fifty leagues out of tune upon my fiddle, without punishing one single nerve that belongs to him.

  28.  Naut. To bring (a ship) to anchor by gradually checking the cable. Phr. To stop the cable: to prevent it running out too fast. Stop her! see quot. 1867; also, on small steamers and motor-boats, the command to stop the engine.

1627.  Capt. Smith, Sea Gram., vii. 31.

1644.  Manwayring, Seamans Dict., 101. When they come to an Anchor, and have let run-out as much … of Cabell … as will make the ship ride, or that the ship be in a current, where it is best to stop her a little by degrees, then they say, Stopp the ship; and so hold-fast the Cabell, and then veere-out a little more, and so stopp her fully, to let her ride. Ibid., 103. The use of them [sc. stoppers] is chiefly … to stopp the cabels, when they come to an Anchor, that it may goe-out by little and little.

1775.  Dalrymple, Voy., in Phil. Trans., LXVIII. 404. At noon, close reefed top-sails, stopt the cable, and came to sail.

1834.  Sir F. B. Head, Bubbles fr. Brunnen Nassau, 6. The word of command, ‘Stop her!’ was loudly vociferated by a bluff, short, Dirk Hatteraick-looking pilot.

1841.  [see EASE v. 9].

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Stop Her!, an order to check the cable in being payed out.

  b.  To stop the tide: to prevent the ship being carried with the tide.

1627.  Capt. Smith, Sea Gram., x. 47. To Tide ouer to a place, is to goe ouer with the Tide of ebbe or flood, and stop the contrary by anchoring till the next Tide.

1708.  Lond. Gaz., No. 4422/7. We came to an Anchor to stop the Flood. Ibid., No. 4431/15. They have anchor’d and stop’d the Tide.

1835.  Sir J. Ross, N.-W. Passage, ii. 25. We were obliged to stop the tide off Port Kale.

  c.  To tie up with thin rope. Also to stop up.

1770.  Phil. Trans., LX. 191. The maintop-mast back stay, to which the chain is stopped, to prevent its swinging about.

1875.  Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., v. (ed. 2), 155. It is advisable to bend the cable … to the crown of the anchor, stopping it with spun-yarn to the ring.

1882.  Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 50. How are the footropes fitted? With a cut splice, being stopped out on each side to the guys.

  29.  Horticulture. To pinch out the head of (a plant); to remove (a shoot or a portion of it) by pinching. Also to stop back.

1699.  L. Meager, Art of Gardening, 66. August…. Release and unbind the Buds you have Inoculated, if they have taken; prune and stop them.

1794.  M‘Phail, Treat. Cucumber, 67. When the seedling plants have one or two joints, I stop them, after which they generally put forth two shoots.

1796.  C. Marshall, Garden., xiv. (1813), 193. Stopping the plants is to be performed about a week before they leave the seed bed.

1842.  Loudon, Suburban Hort., 495. To concentrate the vigour of the plant, the shoots are stopped repeatedly as they advance in growth.

1849.  Florist, 256. Stop back young plants that have been struck this season.

  fig.  1875.  Dowden, Shakespere, 282. When Shakspere finds himself shooting up too rapidly he ‘stops’ himself, as gardeners do a plant.

  30.  Arch. To cause (a rib, shaft, chamfer, etc.) to terminate (in a specified form or position).

1835.  R. Willis, Archit. Mid. Ages, vii. 97. Sometimes, however, the diagonal ribs are stopped by corbels near their imposts. Ibid., 98. The vaulting shafts are all stopped before they reach the ground.

1848.  Rickman, Archit., 36. The flutes are stopt square, and not as usual rounded at the ends.

  31.  Bird-catching. To subject (a call-bird) to a process that causes it to moult prematurely. ? Obs.

1768.  Pennant, Brit. Zool., II. 332. We have been lately informed by an experienced bird-catcher, that he pursues a cooler regimen in stopping his birds.

  32.  Phonetics. To check the flow of (breath or voice) in articulation. Cf. STOPPED ppl. a. 7.

1867.  A. M. Bell, Visible Sp., 12. In forming Consonants, the breath or voice is stopped or squeezed, with an effect of percussion, sibilation, buzzing, or vibration, in some part of the guttural or oral passage.

  33.  Technical uses with advs.

  a.  Stop down. trans. To reduce the aperture of (a lens) by means of the stops.

1892.  Photogr. Ann., II. p. cxxiii. The Lenses … will work full aperture for portraits and groups, and when stopped down a little, will produce landscape and architectural photos.

1907.  J. A. Hodges, Elem. Photogr. (ed. 6), 21. The sharpness of the picture can … be greatly improved by the simple expedient of ‘stopping down.’

  b.  Stop off. trans. (a) In Moulding, to adapt (a mold) to a new design by shortening or obliterating some part of it; also refl. of a mold. (b) In Etching, Electroplating, etc.: = stop out.

  (a)  1843.  Holtzapffel, Turning, I. 354. If the pattern be too long, or that it be temporarily desired to obliterate some few parts, the mould is made of the full size and stopped-off.

1885.  [Horner], Pattern Making, 53. We make a special box to fill up the print as well as to core the hole out, or, in brief, to ‘stop itself off.’

  (b)  1856.  G. Gore, Pract. Chem., 77. Many articles which are to receive deposits require to have portions of their surface ‘stopped off,’ to prevent the deposit spreading over those parts.

1907.  Edin. Rev., July, 233. The lines of an etching may be darkened or again ‘stopped off.’

  c.  Stop out. trans. (a) In Etching, to obliterate or cover with a varnish (the marks, lines, or other parts of a plate which are to be kept from the acid in the process of biting in). Also absol. (b) In Electrotyping, Calico-printing, etc.: see quots.

1871.  Self Instructor, 548. If any scratches … or mistakes be committed in the etchings, they are to be stopped out.

1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 775. If any parts require to be stopt out, use turpentine-varnish and lamp-black, and with a camel’s hair brush pass over those parts you consider of sufficient depth.

1871.  Hamerton, Etcher’s Handbk., 78. Bracquemond … stopped-out sixty times, in order to get sixty degrees of depth in his lines.

1892.  Temple Bar, Sept., 56. The lettering of plates may be stopped-out or burnished away or covered up for the striking off of misleading impressions.

  (b.)  1838.  in Newton’s Lond. Jrnl., Conj. Ser. XVI. 63. Certain apparatus, by which I stop out or protect any desired portions of the cloth or fabric, whilst it is under the operation of dyeing.

1885.  C. G. W. Lock, Workshop Rec., Ser. IV. 214/2. [Electrotyping.] The mould is next ‘stopped out,’ by brushing liquid wax on those portions of the frame and wax upon which no deposition is intended to take place.

  d.  Stop over. trans. In Moulding: see quot.

1885.  [Horner], Pattern Making, 53. ‘Stopping over’ means filling up the upper portion of the print level with the face of the mould, after the core has been placed in position.

  III.  To come to a stand, cease to move or act.

  34.  intr. To cease from onward movement, to come to a stand or position of rest. More emphatically to stop dead, stop short (see DEAD, SHORT advs.). Said of a person or other living creature, also of an inanimate thing driven or propelled.

1530.  Palsgr., 736/2. I stoppe, as a horse or cart doth, whan they be goyng on the way, je jocque.

1597.  Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., I. i. 38 (Qo.). After him came spurning hard A gentleman … That stopt by me, to breathe his bloudied horse.

1670.  Dryden, Tyr. Love, IV. ii. As some faint pilgrim … Sometimes resolved to fetch his leap, and then Runs to the bank, but there stops short again.

1709.  Tatler, No. 114, ¶ 1. I saw a Coach stop at my Door.

1770.  Cumberland, West Indian, I. vi. Stop, stay a little, Charles, whither are you going in such haste?

1736.  Gray, Statius, I. 40. Sure flew the disc from his unerring hand, Nor stopp’d till it had cut the further strand.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., v. He again paced the room in silence, stopped, filled and drank a cup of wine. Ibid., xxiv. Pulling the reins with all his might, and ejaculating, ‘Stop! Stop!’

1852.  F. S. Williams, Our Iron Roads, x. 227. On a train stopping, or travelling slowly through an intermediate station.

1855.  Kingsley, Westw. Ho! xii. Sebastian Cabota,… being in want of provisions, stopped short at the mouth of that mighty South American river.

1907.  J. H. Patterson, Man-Eaters of Tsavo, xv. 169. All of a sudden, however, the jackal stopped dead for a second, and then made off out of sight.

  fig.  1595.  Shaks., John, V. vii. 67. [The king dies.] Hen. Euen so must I run on, and euen so stop.

  b.  spec. of a horse: See quot. 1679.

1575[?].  Blundevil, Art of Riding, II. ii. D viij b. The horse by this meanes learneth .iii. lessons at once,… firste to tread the ringe, secondly to stop, and thirdly to turne.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., IV. i. 32. It is a Creature that I teach to fight, To winde, to stop, to run directly on.

1679.  A. Lovell, Indic. Univ., 215/2. To stop a Horse is, to make him stay short on his buttocks…. That Horse stops well.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 183. The Lapithæ … taught the Steed to bound;… To stop, to fly, the Rules of War to know.

  c.  To pause, stay on the or one’s way (to do something). Also to stop short.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 129, ¶ 9. He stopt short at the Coach, to ask us how far the Judges were behind us.

1825.  Scott, Talism., ix. The baron, however, was a little later of entering the tent…, stopping, perchance, to issue some orders.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxxviii. You’ve been stopping to over all the posts in Bristol, you idle young scamp!

1873.  Ruskin, Fors Clav., III. xxx. 10. It seemed to him that everybody stopped as they passed, to look at his cart.

  35.  To make a halt on a journey, esp. to halt and remain for rest and refreshment. Of a coach, train, boat, or other public conveyance: To halt at a specified place to pick up and set down passengers, etc.

1743.  Bulkeley & Cummins, Voy. S. Seas, 107. The greatest Part of the People must be oblig’d, at every Place we stop, to go on Shore in Search of Provisions.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxv. The postilions stopped at the convent … to take up Blanche.

1832.  J. H. Newman, Lett. & Corr. (1891), I. 295. The vessel not being allowed to stop over to-morrow.

1837.  Dickens, Pickw., xxii. It was at the door of this overgrown tavern, that the London coach stopped, at the same hour every evening.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xvi. III. 697. Thence he travelled to London, stopping by the road at the mansions of some great lords.

1856.  Miss Isab. Bird, Englishw. in Amer., 160. While stopping at a station another lady entered.

1901.  Alldridge, Sherbro, xxiii. 235. We … marched on … until we reached the old shed, where we had stopped three days before.

  b.  To stop over: to make a halt (at a place) and proceed by a later conveyance. Similarly to stop off. U.S.

1884.  Sir J. W. Dawson, in Handbk. Canada, 86. By stopping over at Dalhousie … the following localities may be visited.

1897.  Outing (U.S.), XXIX. 563/2. 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.

1913.  Blackw. Mag., Jan., 98/2. It was arranged that the party should ‘stop off’ at a small place some hours eastward on the main line, and should thence by motor ‘side track’ … to another small town.

  36.  (Cf. STAY v.¹ 8, which is often preferred as more correct.) To remain, prolong one’s stay in a place; to stay (to dinner, at home, with a person). Also to with inf. Also quasi-trans., to remain for (a ceremony, a meal, etc.).

1801.  trans. Gabrielli’s Myst. Husb., III. 123. If your Honour and you, Madam, will stop to dinner with us.

1805.  Moore, Mem. (1853), I. 181. Now, by stopping in town to-morrow, I shall … get off the necessity of returning to town so soon as I otherwise should do.

1832.  J. H. Newman, Lett. & Corr. (1891), I. 254. Let him [come up alone and] go into your rooms, and do stop in Devonshire a good while. Ibid., 275. Did I consult my wishes I should stop at home.

1857.  Hughes, Tom Brown, II. vii. I never stop the Sacrament … I’ve never been confirmed.

1858.  Trollope, Dr. Thorne, xxix. But you’ll stop and take a bit of dinner with us?

1864.  Mrs. Riddell, Geo. Geith, xxi. II. 88. The butler … went straight off to Granny, and gave her notice; and she actually raised his wages, and prayed him to stop.

1898.  Rider Haggard, Dr. Therne, 10. I could stop in Mexico for three months.

1901.  W. R. H. Trowbridge, Lett. her Mother to Eliz., xix. 94. I am sure the society at Lucerne would have bored me if I had stopped much longer.

  b.  With advs., as away, out. To stop on, to continue in one place or employment. To stop up, to remain ‘up’ at one’s college or university; colloq. to sit up instead of going to bed.

1815.  Zeluca, II. 86. You stopped away from Spire on Tuesday.

1819.  J. H. Newman, Lett. & Corr. (1891), I. 42. [At the end of the term he writes] The Fellows have been very kind, have said we might stop up as long as we like.

1848.  Thackeray, Van. Fair, lxi. Georgy stopped away from school.

1857.  Mrs. Gaskell, Charlotte Brontë, II. 148. Mr. Brontë and old Tabby went to bed…. But Charlotte … stopped up,—it was very tempting,—late and later.

1889.  Spectator, 14 Sept., 330/1. This … is their notion of a career, and … to ‘stop on’ in the village is to accept a great disappointment.

  c.  To sojourn as a visitor, resident or guest.

1797.  Mrs. A. M. Bennett, Beggar Girl (1813), V. 37. They wanted her to let Miss stop with them.

1839.  Lever, Harry Lorrequer, ii. You will dine with us to-day at seven…: but make your arrangements to stop all night and to-morrow.

1859.  G. Ticknor, Life, II. xxii. 439. Sir Henry Holland … has been stopping with the President.

1859.  Dasent, Pop. Tales Norse, 344. She gave the man leave to stop the night.

1901.  W. R. H. Trowbridge, Lett. her Mother to Eliz., vi. 26. Clandevil is stopping at Astley Court.

  37.  To leave off doing what one is actually engaged in for the moment. Const. from. Also to stop short, to leave off abruptly.

1594.  Shaks., Rich. III., IV. ii. 45. Hath he so long held out with me, vntyr’d, And stops he now for breath?

1727.  Pope, Macer, 9. There he stopped short, nor since has writ a tittle.

1826.  Scott, Jrnl., 12 March. I was interrupted by a slumberous feeling which made me obliged to stop once or twice.

1861.  Paley, Æschylus (ed. 2), Choeph., 904, note. The transcriber having begun to copy the next verse, and stopping short on discovering his error.

1886.  W. W. Story, Fiammetta, ii. 32. The groups of reapers that stopped from their work to gaze at the passing train.

1894.  J. T. Fowler, Adamnan, Introd. 74. And here, he said, I must stop, let Baithene write the rest.

  b.  To pause in speech or narrative; to break off in the middle of a sentence. Also to stop short, to pause abruptly. † Also refl.

1579.  W. Wilkinson, Confut. Fam. Love, Brief Descr. ☞ iiij b. Yea quoth Vitels … the same mynde must be in you which was in Christ, and there he stopped him [i.e., did not complete the quotation].

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iv. 98. Ben. Stop there, stop there. Mer. Thou desir’st me to stop in my tale against the haire.

17[?].  Pope, Imit. Hor., I. vii. 84. ‘Harley, the Nation’s great Support,’—But you may read it; I stop short.

1816.  Scott, Old Mort., xxxviii. He had just recollection sufficient to stop short in the midst of the dangerous sentence.

1862.  Miss Braddon, Lady Audley, xxxiii. ‘There’s Luke, too tipsy to help himself,… there’s Mr. Audley asleep—.’ Phæbe Marks stopped suddenly at the mention of Robert’s name.

1862.  Mrs. Browning, Last Poems, King’s Gift, i. Now what has the messenger brought her,… To make her stop short in her singing?

  c.  To pause in a course of conduct (to think, question oneself).

1865.  Flor. Marryat, Love’s Confl., I. xix. 328. She herself never stopped—she dared not stop—to ask herself why or wherefore she felt thus.

  d.  imper., used as an injunction to pause in or desist from any procedure, as speech, argument, criticism, and the like. Also in the phrase stop a moment!

1570.  Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), III. 2164/2. At last his chaplaynes cryed, stoppe, stoppe my Lord, for now he wyll recant.

1738.  Pope, Epil. Sat., II. 52. P. To tax Directors,… Still better, Ministers, or, if the thing May pinch ev’n there—why lay it on a King. F. Stop! Stop! P. Must Satire, then, nor rise nor fall?

1759.  Johnson, Rasselas, ix. ‘Stop a moment,’ said the Prince; ‘is there such depravity in man as that he should’ [etc.].

1839.  Lever, Harry Lorrequer, xxx. ‘Well, are you satisfied that this is his handwriting?’… ‘Why, of course—but stop—you are right; it is not his hand.’

1848.  Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, xlvii. 408. ‘We will knock the neck [of the bottle] off with a stone.’ ‘Stop, Sir,’ said the stranger. ‘Excuse me—this is the way to do it.’

1865.  Flor. Marryat, Love’s Confl., I. xix. 336. He … drew out the packet of letters. ‘Confound it!’ where was the one in his mother’s handwriting? The rest were all there—stop! were they?

1887.  O. Wilde, Canterville Ghost, v. ‘Stop!’ cried Virginia, stamping her foot, ‘it is you who are rude, and horrid, and vulgar.’

  38.  To leave off, stay, desist (in a course of action or a pursuit, or from one’s customary action or employment). Const. from, to with inf. Also to stop short.

1689.  Sc. Acts (1875), XII. 61/2. Letters … ordering the Judges to stoppe and desist sine die to determine causes depending before them.

1850.  McCosh, Div. Govt., II. i. (1874), 146. Every event has a cause, and in tracing up causes we must stop at length at a great first cause.

1901.  W. R. H. Trowbridge, Lett. her Mother to Eliz., xxi. 99. Lady Beatrice, who really at her age ought to stop, got a blow on her forehead [at hockey].

  b.  To limit one’s activity at a certain point; to refrain from exceeding a certain degree or extent.

1737.  Gentl. Mag., VII. 539. I … attended the innocent but unfortunate Men to the Scaffold…. I did not stop here, for I carried the Head of Captain Green to the Grave.

1744.  Kames, Decis. Crt. Sess. 1730–54 (1799), 81. If the rule be ones established that a man has power over his neighbour’s property … there is no possibility to stop short.

1770.  Cumberland, West Indian, IV. iii. Louisa. Hold, are you mad? I see you are a bold, assuming man, and know not where to stop.

1771.  Junius Lett., xlii. The woman, who admits of one familiarity, seldom knows where to stop, or what to refuse.

1819.  Scott, Ivanhoe, xxviii. His charity would willingly have stopped short at Ashby.

1860.  Rous, in Baily’s Mag., I. 75. I know the point to stop at, and how far the public will support me in my policy.

  c.  To stay in action, to hesitate, ‘stick.’ Const. at. To stop at nothing, to be prevented by no obstacle.

1676.  Dryden, Aureng-zebe, II. 29. The World is made for the bold impious man; Who stops at nothing, seizes all he can.

1704.  Cibber, Careless Husb., V. 63. ’Tis Possible you’ll stop at Nothing to preserve it.

c. 1738.  Pope, On Receiving Standish, 24. You’d write … on ivory, so glib, As not to stick at fool or ass, Nor stop at Flattery or Fib.

1907.  J. H. Patterson, Man-Eaters of Tsavo, ii. 20. They stopped at nothing … in order to obtain their favourite food.

  39.  Of a thing: To cease its motion or action. Of a process: To cease activity; to come to a pause or end.

a. 1529.  Skelton, E. Rummyng, 29. Her nose … Neuer stoppynge, But euer droppynge.

1594.  Kyd, Cornelia, II. 186. Whereat my blood stopt in my stragling vaines; Mine haire grew bristled.

1605.  Shaks., Macb., II. iii. 104. The Spring, the Head, the Fountaine of your Blood Is stopt, the very Source of it is stopt. Macd. Your Royall Father’s murther’d.

1663.  Bayfield, Treat. De Morb. Capitis, 181. The more he bled, the more his Fever abated, and when it was gone, the blood stopped.

1707.  Mortimer, Husb., 574. It flushes violently out of the Cock for about a Quart, and then stops on a sudden.

1765.  Museum Rust., IV. 181. The purging stopped the fourth day.

1771.  Junius Lett., xliv. (1788), 254. Their whole proceeding stops; and there they stand, ashamed to retreat, and unable to advance.

1816.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 482. Crystallization goes on but very slowly in closed vessels; and in most instances wholly stops.

1830.  R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 247. The ulceration stops and heals.

1839.  D. Milne, in Trans. R. Soc. Edin., XIV. 458. The Kirtle, a river which runs from Dumfriesshire into the Solway Frith, stopped, on the 17th February 1748, for five hours.

1901.  W. R. H. Trowbridge, Lett. her Mother to Eliz., xxix. 141. Yesterday it rained … and when it stopped for a few minutes there was such a nasty fog.

  b.  Of a machine, etc.: To cease working or going. Also to stop dead.

1789.  Cowper, Let. Mrs. Throckmorton, 18 July. Your clock in the hall has stopped.

1839.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., ii. My watch has stopped.

1903.  A. Maclaren, Last Sheaves, 182. You have weaving machines in your mills that whenever a thread breaks, stop dead.

  40.  a. Of an immaterial thing: To have its limit of operation at a specified point. Of a series: To come to an end.

1733.  Pope, Ess. Man, III. 128. There stops the Instinct, and there ends the care.

1741–2.  Challoner, Missionary Priests (1803), II. 19. But the severities exercised against catholics did not stop here.

1806.  Med. Jrnl., XV. 533. That any particular mode of treatment should stop at such supposed line, and that then an opposite mode of cure should be thought necessary.

1874.  Gross, Algebra, II. 23. If a series stops at some one term, it is called a finite series.

1911.  H. Bindloss, Hawtrey’s Deputy, xi. His comprehension stopped at such details as these.

  b.  Of a material thing: To come to an end (in space). To stop short, to end abruptly.

1887.  S. O. Ridley, in Challenger Rep., XX. 204. Every alternate fascicle of the main skeleton stops short a little way below the surface.

1915.  Blackw. Mag., March, 338/1. We spent nearly half an hour in trying to find a way through the maze of alleys, each of which stopped with a dead end.

  IV.  41. [From STOP sb.] trans. To furnish with stops or punctuation-marks, to punctuate.

1776.  Critical Observ. Books, I. 25. Thus Bergler rightly stops these lines; for if a comma be made after στυφελιξη [etc.].

1802.  Dibdin, Edit. Classics, 39, note. These verses are stopp’d according to the Harleian Catalogue.

1826.  Landor, Imag. Conv., Alfieri & Salomon, Wks. 1846, I. 191/1. Guicciardini, if his sentences were properly stopped, would be found in general both full and concise.

1885.  G. Allen, Babylon, x. That letter wasn’t all spelt right, or stopped right.

  42.  Versification. To conclude or divide (a line of verse) with a ‘stop.’ Cf. STOP sb.² 17 c, STOPPED ppl. a. 8. Also intr. (cf. 37. b).

1857.  C. B[athurst], Rem. Differ. Shaks. Versif., 148. I think Shakspeare had a preference, where the line is completely stopped in the middle, for a break upon the short syllable. Ibid., 202. Blank verse, unbroken, is still totally separate from complete rhyme, as having no tendency to stop at every other line.

  V.  43. Combinations of the verb with a sb. in objective relation: † stop-gamble, † stop-game, a situation that ends or interrupts the game; † stop-hole, a plug; stop-loss a., (of an order to sell stock, etc.) intended to save further loss than has been already incurred by falling prices; stop-motion, a device for automatically stopping a machine or engine when something has gone wrong; stop-mouth a. nonce-wd., intended to keep people silent; stop-press sb. (see quot. 1888); also attrib. or adj. (of an issue of a newspaper or a particular column), containing late news inserted after printing has begun; † stop-ship [trans. Gr. ἐχενηῑς], the remora; † stop-throat a. nonce-wd., that tightly enwraps the throat; stop-water Naut. (a) something fixed or towed overboard to retard the motion of a ship; (b) a plug or other contrivance for making a joint water-tight; (c) gen. (? nonce-use) an obstacle to the flow of water. Also STOP-GAP.

1579.  J. Stubbes, Gaping Gulf, E v. A most strange dreame it is of theirs who will haue thys match a bridle to the french king, a snaffle to Spayn, and a *stopgamble to all practises of competition for popery.

1659.  Gauden, Tears of Ch., IV. xx. 566. No violence and injustice can be proper to usher in true Christian Religion and Reformation: these methods have made them so stunted and ricketly, that they are come to a *stop-game.

1562.  Turner, Baths, 2. My counsell is y^t euery bath haue an hole in the bottome, by the whych the *stophole taken out y^e bath should be clenged.

c. 1711.  Petiver, Gazophyl., VII. lxv. The Cover or Stop-hole of the Cochlea cœlata.

1901.  Scotsman, 8 April, 9/7. Many fresh *stop-loss orders were put on the market.

1851.  Mechanics’ Mag., Jan., 54/2. An Improvement in *Stop-motion of Looms.

1902.  Thornley, Cotton Combing Machines, 210. There are two or three descriptions of stop motions which are applied to combers when required.

1823.  in Spirit Publ. Jrnls., 261. The accumulated expences of renewals, interest, stamps, *stop-mouth and forbearance money.

1881.  Manch. Even. News, 17 March, 3. The *stop-press edition of the Daily Chronicle says [etc.].

1888.  Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 703/1. In machines which printed from the type, late telegrams could only be inserted by a ‘stop-press’; that is, the printing was interrupted while the alteration was being made.

1910.  Spectator, 16 July, 103/1. The ‘stop press’ column of an evening newspaper.

1591.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. v. 4440. *Stop-ship say, say how thou canst oppose Thy selfe alone against so many foes?

1672.  Josselyn, New Eng. Rarities, 29. Remora, or Suck Stone, or Stop Ship.

1600.  Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, xxvii. 33. Why in the *Stop-throate fashion doth he go, With Scarfe about his necke?

1794.  Rigging & Seamanship, II. 337. *Stopwaters … on the lee quarter…, may cause the ship to veer.

1820.  Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., II. 450. Making a stop-water between two of the frames of timber on the fore part of the leak.

1832.  Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), II. 324. If London Bridge could have kept out the first stroke of the pick-axe, the old stop-water would have been there still.

1844.  Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., VII. 95/2. It offers little or no resistance to the speed of the vessel as a stopwater.

1869.  Sir E. Reed, Shipbuild., xi. 228. A stop-water formed of Canvas steeped in paint,… must be fitted between the continuous plates and angle-irons.

  44.  Substantival or attributive uses of verbal phrases: stop-back, a contrivance for temporarily arresting the flow of water in a pipe or watercourse (now spec. a lump of clay inserted for this purpose); stop-off, something that stops the working of a machine; in quot. attrib.; stop-over (U.S.), the act of ‘stopping over’ (see 35 b) or breaking one’s journey to go on by a later conveyance; also attrib.; stop-short a. (nonce-wd.), that stops short of its proper object.

1790.  Act 30 Geo. III., c. 21 § 1. Stand Pipes, Service Pipes, *Stopbacks, Valves, Fire Plugs.

1869.  Rankine, Machine & Hand-tools, Pl. K 9, The *stop-off motion … is very simple.

1884.  Advt. Illinois Central Railroad, Tourist-tickets from Chicago to Texas,… via New Orleans, with *stop-over privileges to visit the Exposition there.

1893.  Kate Sanborn, A Truthful Woman S. California, 97. The schedule of trains allows of convenient stop-overs.

1895.  Outing (U.S.), XXVII. App. 27. By stopover privileges at every point of interest, the Northern Pacific Railroad enables tourists to visit this wonderful region.

1909.  Public Ledger (Philad.), 24 June, 11/4. Philadelphia is named as a stop-over point in excursions.

1747.  Richardson, Clarissa (1811), I. xxx. 213. Proud of exterior advantages!—must not one be led by such a *stop short pride, as I may call it, in him or her who has it, to mistrust the interior?