[f. STOP v. + -ING1.]
I. 1. The action of the vb. STOP in various senses.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, VI. 169. The vpcom wes then Dittit with slayn hors and men; Swa that his fayis, for that stopping, Micht not cum to the vp-cummyng.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, V. 114. Fyrst, to the hunde it mycht gret stoppyn be.
1487–8. Rec. St. Mary at Hill (1905), 132. Paide to a dawber for stoppyng of an hole in Sir Iohn lovyers chamber,… iij d.
1552. Huloet, Stoppynge of wynde, asthma, obstructio.
1592. Bacon, Observ. Libel, Resusc. (1657), 125. For the Stopping of Traffique … I refer my Self to the Custome-Books.
1677. F. North, Philos. Ess. Mus., 28. Pipes may be helped by the strength of the blast, and fretted Instruments by a favourable stopping.
1697. De Foe, Ess. Projects, 321. All discounting of Wages,… stopping of Pay, and the like, to be adjusted by stated and Publick Rules.
1764. Museum Rust., IV. 18. I pinch off with my nail such branches as accompany the fruit, to the thickness of about two crown-pieces, which I call stopping.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 613. Pruning may be rendered almost unnecessary by disbudding, disleafing, and stopping.
1873–4. H. Sweet, in Trans. Philol. Soc., 107. The voice stops (g), (d) and often (b) are weakened after vowels by imperfect stopping.
1875. E. A. Davidson, House-painting, etc. 12. Stopping consists in filling in and making good all nail-holes, bad joints, cracks, &c. with putty, or with a paste made of putty and white lead, called hard stopping.
1881. Grove, Dict. Mus., III. 717. Stopping, the technical term for the operation of pressing the fingers on the strings of a violin, viola, etc., necessary to produce the notes. Double Stopping is the producing of two notes at once.
1902. Land & Water, 35 Oct., 616/3. Very naturally they [the boys] prefer a day’s stopping [in the coverts] to a day school.
b. Combined with advs., stopping down, off, out, up. (See the related verbal phrases under STOP v.)
1904. Kilbey, Hand-camera Photogr., 39. This is the chief use of ‘stopping down.’
1856. G. Gore, Pract. Chem., 77. ‘Stopping off’ to Prevent Deposition.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2407. Stopping off (Founding), a term applied to the filling up with sand of a portion of a mold, when the casting is desired to be smaller than the pattern from which the mold is formed.
1807. J. Landseer, Lect. Engraving, 232. Either by partial stoppings out, or the increased pressure of his Etching-needle.
1838. in Newton’s Lond. Jrnl., Conj. Ser. XVI. 64. These stopping-out apparatus are not limited as to their forms or dimensions.
1880. Hamerton, Etching & Etchers (ed. 3), App. 338. Stopping-out varnish.
1671. Phillips (ed. 3), Suffocation, a choaking, stifling, or stopping up of the breath.
1721. Mortimer, Husb., II. 330. The principal Cause that there hath been so much bad Cyder made in most parts of England, was the too early stopping of it up.
1805. Shipwright’s Vade-M., 136. Stoppings-up, the poppets, timbers, &c. used to fill up the vacancy between the upper-side of the bilgeways and the ship’s bottom, for supporting her when launching.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 821/1. s.v. Shipbuilding, There should be at least two chains on each side secured to the fore-poppets,… and two on each side to the stopping-up.
1912. H. J. Butler, Motor Bodies, 114. Opinion is divided as to when the stopping-up should take place. Some painters do it now, while others leave it till the filling-up … is done.
2. The placing of stops, punctuation.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Stops, Stopping, in Grammar.
1837. J. H. Newman, Proph. Office Ch., 180. They use some anomalous criticism, or alter the stopping, or amend the text, &c.
1880. N. T. (Rev. Vers.), Pref. iii. 4 d. Great care has been bestowed on the punctuation. Our practice has been to maintain what is sometimes called the heavier system of stopping.
1902. T. S. Omond, in N. & Q., Ser. IX. IX. 276/2. His [Browning’s] punctuation … seems an attempt to supply that rhetorical arrangement of clauses which modern stopping altogether ignores.
† 3. Path. Obstructed conditions of an organ: = STOPPAGE 4. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIX. xlix. (1495), 891. Soure thynges openyth stoppynges of the splene and of the lyuour.
1528. Paynell, Salerne’s Regim., F 4 b. They open the opilations & stoppynges that are wonte to be engendred in suche persons.
1657. W. Coles, Adam in Eden, cxlv. The Extraction thereof is a Singular remedy against the yellow Jaundice, and Stoppings of the Liver, Spleen, and Womb.
1741. A. Monro, Anat. (ed. 3), 86. A Coryza, or stopping of the Nose from any other Cause.
fig. 1646. Jenkyn, Remora, 33. What coolings were there in our love, what stoppings in our bowels.
II. Concrete uses.
4. Something inserted to stop a hole, crevice or passage.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 264/1. Endiæum,… the stopping of the glister pipe, which is of cloth, and hangeth by a thred.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 162. The access of air being prevented by a stopping of paste or mortar so made.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 259. The water in the inner pot … is prevented from escaping through its bottom by the clay stopping at a.
1876. Preece & Sivewright, Telegraphy, 230. A stopping of yarn should be rammed into the socket of the pipe before the joint is made.
† b. Decayed honey filling the cells of a comb.
1609. C. Butler, Fem. Mon., i. (1623), D ij. So they might live in secula, if … the abundance of noisome stopping would suffer them to abide the Hiues. Ibid., vi. (1623), O ij [see COOM sb.1 3].
c. Farriery. A pad charged with grease inserted within the shoe for the purpose of keeping the horse’s foot moist.
1580. Blundevil, Curing Horses Dis., cxliv. 62 b. Stop him with Turpentine and Hogs grease molten togither, and laid on with a little towe or flaxe, and then clap on the shooe to keepe in the stopping.
1828. S. F. Gray, Suppl. Pharmacopœias (ed. 4), 464. Stoppings for the feet. Tallow 2 lb, [etc.].
d. A composition used to stop holes or crevices.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 417. Filling up cracks and defects with putty, called stopping.
1883. R. Haldane, Workshop Rec., Ser. II. 127/1. The ‘stopping,’ as this mixture [of size and whiting] is called, is pressed into the cracks [of the picture] by means of a palette-knife.
1901. J. Black, Carp. & Build., Home Handicr., 43. [Before painting] any knots or resinous places in the woodwork should be coated with ‘stopping,’ or red lead in varnish.
e. Dentistry. The material used for stopping a hollow tooth.
1863. Trevelyan, Compet. Wallah (1866), 151. As a dentist once said to me, ‘All is not stopping that glitters.’
1896. Punch, 11 Jan., 24/2. You mustn’t bite anything for two hours at least, or you’ll spoil the stopping.
5. † a. A dam, embankment. Obs.
1575. in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 375. The banks and stoppings of the waters aboute Sowthe bridge.
b. Mining. (See quots.)
1708. J. C., Compleat Collier (1845), 46. Care of the Air must be taken in general, That it be not too much Dispersed, or too much liberty given for want of Stoppings.
c. 1790. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), V. 103/2. The passage … must be closed up … by a partition of deals, or by a wall built with bricks or stones, to prevent the air passing that way. This building is called a stopping.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 986. By means of such stoppings placed in the boards next the dip-head level, the air can be transported to the right hand or to the left for many miles.
1911. Act 1 & 2 Geo. V., c. 50 § 42 (3). All stoppings between main intake airways and main return airways.
6. Archery. (See quot.)
1801. T. Roberts, Engl. Bowman, 294. Stopping, the extreme part or head of the pile, which is solid.
III. 7. attrib. and Comb., in sense ‘bringing to a stand,’ as in stopping effect, power, quality; ‘coming to a stand, halting,’ as in stopping-place, -point; ‘filling holes or crevices,’ as in stopping-instrument, -knife, -material, -tool; stopping-ground Etching (see quots.); stopping mixture Etching, a composition to be used as a stopping-ground; † stopping pan, a pan for melting materials for making ‘stoppings’ (sense 4 c); stopping station, one of the stations at which an express train stops; † stopping stick, a shoemaker’s tool (? for filling crevices).
1907. J. H. Patterson, Man-Eaters of Tsavo, xxiv. 279. As a matter of fact, however, it [the bullet] went clean through him [the charging lion] without having the slightest *stopping effect.
1837. Penny Cycl., IX. 442/1. The parts which are bitten-in enough, are now to be covered with what is called *stopping-ground, which is a mixture of lamp-black and Venice turpentine.
1862. Chamb. Encycl., III. 497/2. To be firmly pressed with a blunt-pointed *stopping-instrument or ‘plugger’ into all the interstices of the hollow of the tooth.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 422. Glaziers are likewise furnished with *stopping knives.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 767. If the ground be any where broken up, a composition called the *stopping mixture, must be immediately applied to it.
1580. Blundevil, Curing Horses Dis., cxv. 53 b. Then fill both his feete with Hogges grease, and bran fried togither in a *stopping Pan.
1848. W. Templeton, Locomot. Eng. (ed. 2), 73. In nearing any station or *stopping place, the steam must be shut off.
1854. Poultry Chron., I. 504. The improvement in these birds is so continuous, that it is hard to say where their *stopping-point will be found.
1896. Times, 16 Dec., 5/2. In the Chitral campaign the *stopping powers of the Lee-Metford rifle bullet were shown to be so small that [etc.].
1898. B. Burleigh, Sirdar & Khalifa, vii. 106. The soldiers have no faith in the *stopping qualities of the Lee-Metford bullet.
1840. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., III. 32/2. One of the *‘stopping stations’ of all the second class trains being opposite.
1891. Daily News, 3 April, 5/5. Only Bletchley,… Stirling, and Perth are stopping stations by these specially fast trains.
1597. Deloney, Gentle Craft, I. Wks. (1912), 89. The whetstone, the *stopping-stick, and the paring knife.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Builder, 371. The plasterer likewise employs several small tools, called *stopping and picking-out tools.
