Forms: 4–6 stopoll, 5 stopelle, -ylle, 5–7 stoppell, stople, 6 stoppall, -elle, -ull, 6–9 stoppel, 9 dial. stapple, 6– stopple. Cf. STOUPAILLE, ESTOPPEL. [Partly f. STOP v. + -EL1, -LE: partly aphetic f. ESTOPPEL.]
I. 1. An appliance for closing the orifice of a vessel, tube, etc.; a stopper, cork, bung or plug. Now somewhat rare; usually replaced by STOPPER.
139[?]. Earl Derby’s Exped. (Camden), 72. Et per manus eiusdem pro j stopell pro j botell.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 477/2. Stoppell, of a bottel or oþer like, ducillus.
1471. Ripley, Comp. Alch., III. vi. in Ashm. (1652), 140. Make thy Stopell of glas.
c. 1480. Henryson, Mor. Fab., Wolf & Fox, xix. The fraudfull foxe … with his teith the stoppell, or he stint, Pullit out.
1526. in Gutch, Collect. Cur. (1781), II. 325. Item deliveryd the … burnysshing of twoo Flagons and mending the Cheynis and Stoppells.
1600. Surflet, Country Farm, III. lxii. 574. Euerie one of the [furnace] mouthes shall haue his stopple. Ibid., V. xxiii. 725. They draw forth the thinnest of the licour … by a stopple which they haue for the purpose in the bottome of the fat.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXXIII. iv. II. 468. No sooner are the stopples driven and shaken out, but the water gusheth foorth amaine.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 184. The stopple of a Vessell, if it be of Hempe or Flax, may not be thrust in.
1626. Middleton, Wom. beware Wom., III. iii. 103. Like a cloth-stopple in a cream-pot.
1718. J. Chamberlayne, Relig. Philos. (1730), II. xviii. § 6. All the Stopples that are used to the Phials … are corroded by the Particles that ascend.
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 75. Let a phial be provided, which has a cork-stoppel.
1849. Eastwick, Dry Leaves, 44. Among the ornaments … suspended over the tomb were some stopples of decanters.
1865. Ellen C. Clayton, Cruel Fortune, II. 289. Mademoiselle Marie took up the phial,… extracted the stopple, sniffed at the contents, then replaced the stopple.
† b. transf. and fig. Obs.
1508. Dunbar, Tua Mariit Wemen, 339. Than with a stew stert out the stoppell of my hals.
1565. Jewel, Repl. Harding (1611), 361. The Councell of Salesgunstadium hath straitly charged, that no Priest presume, to say more than three Masses vpon one day,… which also is a great stopple to M. Hardings Totquot.
1628. in Rushw., Hist. Coll. (1659), I. 586. Which might serve for a sufficient stopple for the Doctors mouth, to keep in his Doctrine of Necessity.
1691. Ray, Creation, II. (1704), 304. Therefore were there no Shuts or Stopples made for the Ears.
† c. Mus. The plug of a stopped organ-pipe. Also (see quot. 1801). Obs.
1771. Roland Le Virloys, Dict. Archit., III. Vocab. 184. Stopple of an organ, biseau d’orgue.
1801. Busby, Dict. Mus. (1811), Stopples, certain plugs with which the ancients stopt or opened the holes of a flute … in order to accommodate its scale … to some particular mode.
1876. Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms.
† 2. A stopping or pad (of wet cotton). Obs.
1560. Whitehorne, Ord. Souldiours (1588), 39 b. Put in the trumbe a handfull of serpentine pouder vnmixt, next a handfull of the foresaid mixture, after a little pouder, then a stoppell of cotten wet in oyle of gineper.
† 3. A name for some marine animals. Obs.
1713. Petiver, Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ, Tab. 5/6. Blatta oblonga maxima … Great Oval Horn-stopple. Ibid., 10/3. Umbilicus marinus niger … Black Bone stopple.
4. Comb., as stopple-cork, -maker; † stopple-pear, some variety of pear (? shaped like a stopper).
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 38. Wrench the *stopple-cork!
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 16. His fader was Macob the *stoppelmaker.
1664. Evelyn, Kal. Hort., Dec. (1679), 30. Pears,… Gascogne-Bergomot, Scarlet-pear, *Stopple-pear.
† II. 5. The action of stopping; a stoppage, prohibition. (Cf. ESTOPPEL 2, 2 b.) Obs.
1578. Sir F. Knollys, in MS. Rawl. D. 23 lf. 19 b. To stoppe hir Maiesties owne marchantes from theyre free vente at Hanborroe, hoping that by the stoppall thereof, they shall [etc.].
1598. Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. vii. 205. Their only skill rests in Collusions, Abatements, stoppels, inhibitions.
1600. W. Watson, Decacordon (1602), 314. Neither Matchiuel, nor any that euer yet was in Europe [come] neere vnto the Iesuits for Atheall deuises to preuent the stoppels of their stratagems.
1651. J. S., Prince of Priggs Revels, III. 10. He’l soon recover all by his collusions, Abatements, stoppels, inhibitions.
