Mining. [App. cogn. w. STEP sb., but the phonological relation is obscure.]
† 1. A step or notch in the side of a pit, or in an upright beam, to receive the end of a stemple or cross-piece. Also attrib. Obs.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., S 4. Instead thereof in either end is made a Step or Stope with a Gouge, and the ends of the Forks sharpned like the Edge-end of a Stemple for to stand in those Stopes.
1824. J. Mander, Derbysh. Miners’ Gloss., 69. Stope, a Hole or Step cut into the side or any other firm place, where there is occasion to set Stemples.
1836. R. Furness, Astrologer, Gloss. Poet. Wks. (1858), 175. Stope and Coil, or Stope and Quoin. In ancient times, the stope was a hole bored in the rock, in order to introduce the quoin or wedge to burst it open.
2. A step-like working in the side of a pit.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., U 2 b. Thus many men may work at once, taking each a Stope before him, one after another, and consequently raise more Ore.
1747. Gentl. Mag., XVII. 327. On the 6th of April … there happened a very great explosion, which beat down a good deal of the partitions, and some of the stops [sic] under ground, and a part of the coal took fire by the damp.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornw., 169. The men work in stopes, that is, in several degrees or steps one above another.
1860. Ure’s Dict. Arts (ed. 5), III. 469. The overburden being removed, the clay is dug up in stopes: that is, in successive layers or courses, and each one being excavated to a greater extent than the one immediately below it, the stopes resemble a flight of irregular stairs.
b. attrib., as in stope-working; stope drill, a portable rock-drill, used in stoping.
1908. Daily Report, 27 Aug. Rand stope drills … enter the competition early next year.
1910. Chamb. Jrnl., 7 May, 358/2. By the time ‘stope’ working is commenced in the Cobalt silver-mines Canada will have first place among the silver-producing countries of the world.
