stop

Borrowed from English full stop.

• IPA^(key): [ˈstɔp]

stop

1. (international standards) ITU & IMO radiotelephony clear code (spelling-alphabet name) for full stop / period.

• decimal

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: stŏp, IPA^(key): /stɒp/

  • Audio (Received Pronunciation); “a stop”:

    (file)

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American, dialects of Canada) enPR: stäp, IPA^(key): /stɑp/

  • Audio (General American):

    (file)

• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /stɒp/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /stɔp/
• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /stɒp/, [stɔ̟p]
• (Indic) IPA^(key): /(ɪ)sʈɔp/, (father-bother merger) /(ɪ)sʈɑp/
• Rhymes: -ɒp

From Middle English stoppen, stoppien, from Old English stoppian (“to stop, close”), from Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn, from Proto-Germanic *stuppōną (“to stop, close”), *stuppijaną (“to push, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewp-, *(s)tewb- (“to push; stick”), from *(s)tew- (“to bump; impact; butt; push; beat; strike; hit”).

Cognate with Saterland Frisian stopje (“to stop, block”), West Frisian stopje (“to stop”), Dutch stoppen (“to stop”), Low German stoppen (“to stop”), German stopfen (“to be filling, stuff”), German stoppen (“to stop”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål stoppe (“to stop”), Icelandic, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish stoppa (“to stop”), Middle High German stupfen, stüpfen (“to pierce”). More at stuff, stump.

Alternative etymology derives Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn from an assumed Vulgar Latin *stūpāre, *stuppāre (“to stop up with tow”), from stūpa, stīpa, stuppa (“tow, flax, oakum”), from Ancient Greek στύπη (stúpē), στύππη (stúppē, “tow, flax, oakum”). This derivation, however, is doubtful, as the earliest instances of the Germanic verb do not carry the meaning of "stuff, stop with tow". Rather, these senses developed later in response to influence from similar sounding words in Latin and Romance.^[1]

stop (third-person singular simple present stops, present participle stopping, simple past and past participle stopped)

2. (intransitive) To cease moving.

   I stopped at the traffic lights.

3. (intransitive) Not to continue.

   The riots stopped when police moved in.

   Soon the rain will stop.

   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […] , down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.

4. (transitive) To cause (something) to cease moving or progressing.

   The sight of the armed men stopped him in his tracks.

   This guy is a fraudster. I need to stop the cheque I wrote him.

   • 2013 June 1, “Ideas coming down the track”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8838, page 13 (Technology Quarterly):

     A “moving platform” scheme […] is more technologically ambitious than maglev trains even though it relies on conventional rails. […] This set-up solves several problems […]. Stopping high-speed trains wastes energy and time, so why not simply slow them down enough for a moving platform to pull alongside?

5. (transitive) To cease; to no longer continue.

   Antonym: keep

   One of the wrestlers suddenly stopped fighting.

6. (transitive) To cause (something) to come to an end.

   The referees stopped the fight.

7. (causative, transitive) To interrupt, prevent or end the activity of someone or something. [with direct object, along with gerund (chiefly UK) or direct object, along with from, along with gerund (chiefly US)]

   Don't let me stop you working.

   • 1988, Jeanne Willis, Tony Ross, Dr Xargle's Book of Earthlets:

     When they have finished the milk they must be patted and squeezed to stop them exploding.

8. (transitive) To close or block an opening.

   He stopped the wound with gauze.

   Rotten leaves and branches have stopped the gutter.

   I've had the cracks in the wall stopped with mortar by the builders.

9. (transitive, intransitive, photography, often with "up" or "down") To adjust the aperture of a camera lens.

   To achieve maximum depth of field, he stopped down to an f-stop of 22.

10. (intransitive) To stay; to spend a short time; to reside or tarry temporarily.

    to stop with a friend

    He stopped for two weeks at the inn.

    He stopped at his friend's house before continuing with his drive.

    • 1886 April – 1887 April, Richard Doddridge Blackmore, “The Maroon”, in Springhaven. A Tale of the Great War. […], volume I, London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, […], published 1887, →OCLC, page 68:

      Springhaven had done so well last week, that this week it meant to do still better, by stopping at home till the money was gone, and making short work afterwards.

    • 1931, E. F. Benson, chapter 7, in Mapp & Lucia:

      She’s not going away. She’s going to stop here forever.

11. (music) To regulate the sounds of (musical strings, etc.) by pressing them against the fingerboard with the finger, or otherwise shortening the vibrating part.
12. (obsolete) To punctuate.
    • 1826, Walter Savage Landor, “Conversation XIII. [Vittorio] Alfieri and Salomon, the Florentine Jew.”, in Imaginary Conversations of Literary Men and Statesmen […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 415:

      [Francesco] Guicciardini, if his sentences were properly stopt, would be found in general both full and concise, whatever may be asserted to the contrary by the fastidious and inattentive.

13. (nautical) To make fast; to stopper.
14. (phonetics, transitive) To pronounce (a phoneme) as a stop.

    th-stopping

15. (finance, transitive) To delay the purchase or sale of (a stock) while agreeing the price for later.
    • 1952, Charles Amos Dice, Wilford John Eiteman, The Stock Market, page 144:

      It will be noted that the specialist would have refused to stop the stock for broker X if he (the specialist) had only one order to sell at 85.

16. To take out of service for repair, servicing or examination.
    • 1960 April, A. W. Bennett, “A Locomotive Shedmaster's Day”, in Railway Magazine, page 272:

      The mechanical foreman is also present, and he gives a progress report of engines under repair and those stopped for their periodical routine examination.

17. To quit partaking in the use of or participation in (something).

    She stopped heroin last year.

    He stopped football to focus on acting.

• This is a catenative verb that takes the gerund -ing to indicate the ending action (stop thinking), or the to infinitive to indicate the purpose of the interruption (stop to think). See Appendix:English catenative verbs for more information.
• When used causatively, the verb can either be followed directly by its dependent clause (for example, to stop them exploding) or take a helper word, usually from, before the clause (to stop them from exploding). The former usage is more common in Britain, and the latter usage more common in America.

• stap (dialectal or obsolete)
• stahp, stawp (slang, spelling pronunciations)

• (to cease moving): brake, desist, halt; See also Thesaurus:stop
• (not to continue): blin, cease, desist, discontinue, halt, terminate; See also Thesaurus:desist
• (to cause to cease moving): arrest, freeze, halt; See also Thesaurus:immobilize
• (to cause to come to an end): blin, cancel, cease, discontinue, halt, terminate; See also Thesaurus:end
• (to tarry): hang about, hang around, linger, loiter, pause; See also Thesaurus:tarry
• (to reside temporarily): lodge, stop over; See also Thesaurus:sojourn

• (antonym(s) of “to cease moving”): continue, go, move, proceed
• (antonym(s) of “not to continue”): continue, proceed
• (antonym(s) of “to cause to cease moving”): continue, move
• (antonym(s) of “to cause to come to an end”): continue, move

• → Finnish: stop
• → French: stop
• → Greek: στοπ (stop)
• → Hungarian: stop
• → Irish: stop
• → Italian: stop
• → Latvian: stop
• → Ottoman Turkish: استوپ (istop)
• → Polish: stop
• → Portuguese: stop
• → Russian: стоп (stop)
• → Spanish: stop
• → Welsh: stopio
• → Tok Pisin: stap

stop (plural stops)

2. A (usually marked) place where buses, trams or trains halt to let passengers get on and off, usually smaller than a station.

   Related terms: halt, station.

   They agreed to meet at the bus stop.

4. An action of stopping; interruption of travel.

   That stop was not planned.

   • 1722, Daniel Defoe, Journal of the Plague Year:

     It is […] doubtful […] whether it contributed anything to the stop of the infection.

   • 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

     Occult qualities put a stop to the improvement of natural philosophy.

   • 1693, [John Locke], “§107”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:

     It is a great step toward the mastery of our desires to give this stop to them.

5. That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; an obstacle; an impediment.
   • 1595, Samuel Daniel, “(please specify the folio number)”, in The First Fowre Bookes of the Ciuile Wars between the Two Houses of Lancaster and Yorke, London: […] P[eter] Short for Simon Waterson, →OCLC:

     A fatal stop trauerst their headlong course

   • a. 1729, John Rogers, The Advantages of conversing with good Men:

     So melancholy a prospect should inspire us with zeal to oppose some stop to the rising torrent.

6. A device intended to block the path of a moving object

   door stop

   1. (engineering) A device, or piece, as a pin, block, pawl, etc., for arresting or limiting motion, or for determining the position to which another part shall be brought.
   2. (architecture) A member, plain or moulded, formed of a separate piece and fixed to a jamb, against which a door or window shuts.
7. (linguistics) A consonant sound in which the passage of air is temporarily blocked by the lips, tongue, or glottis.

   Synonyms: plosive, occlusive

8. A symbol used for purposes of punctuation and representing a pause or separating clauses, particularly a full stop, comma, colon or semicolon.
9. (music) A knob or pin used to regulate the flow of air in an organ.

   The organ is loudest when all the stops are pulled.

10. (music) One of the vent-holes in a wind instrument, or the place on the wire of a stringed instrument, by the stopping or pressing of which certain notes are produced.
11. (tennis) A very short shot which touches the ground close behind the net and is intended to bounce as little as possible.
12. (soccer) A save; preventing the opposition from scoring a goal
    • 2021 May 15, Phil McNulty, “Chelsea 0-1 Leicester”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

      The Foxes were indebted to two crucial saves from keeper Kasper Schmeichel, who turned former Leicester defender Ben Chilwell's header on to a post then produced an even better stop to turn Mason Mount's powerful shot wide.

13. (zoology) The depression in a dog’s face between the skull and the nasal bones.

    The stop in a bulldog's face is very marked.

14. A marking on a rabbit's hind foot.

    The American Rabbit Breeders Association holds that the stops of a Dutch rabbit should be white from the toes to one third of the way along the foot.

15. (photography) A part of a photographic system that reduces the amount of light.
16. (photography) A unit of exposure corresponding to a doubling of the brightness of an image.
17. (photography) An f-stop.
18. The diaphragm used in optical instruments to cut off the marginal portions of a beam of light passing through lenses.
19. (fencing) A coup d'arret, or stop thrust.
20. (UK, grammar, informal) Ellipsis of full stop.

stop

1. Used to indicate the end of a sentence in a telegram.

From Middle English stoppe, from Old English stoppa (“bucket, pail, a stop”), from Proto-Germanic *stuppô (“vat, vessel”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teub- (“to push, hit; stick, stump”). See stoup.

stop (plural stops)

1. (UK dialectal) A small well-bucket; a milk-pail.

From s- + top.

stop (plural stops)

1. (physics) The squark that is the superpartner of a top quark.
   • 2016, ATLAS Collaboration, “Search for pair production of gluinos decaying via stop and sbottom in events with ${\displaystyle b}$-jets and large missing transverse momentum in ${\displaystyle pp}$ collisions at ${\displaystyle {\sqrt {s}}=13}$ TeV with the ATLAS detector”, in arXiv‎^[2]:

     For neutralino masses below approximately 700 GeV, gluino masses of less than 1.78 TeV and 1.76 TeV are excluded at the 95% CL in simplified models of the pair production of gluinos decaying via sbottom and stop, respectively.

• post-, OTPs, SPTO, spot, TSOP, OSTP, Tops, pots, post., Post, TPOs, TOPS, post, -post, tops, Spot, POST, POTS, opts, PTOs

• IPA^(key): [ˈstop]

Borrowed from English stop.

stop m inan

1. hitchhiking

   Synonym: autostop

2. (sports) suspension

   Za hrubý faul dostal stop na čtyři zápasy. ― He received a four-match suspension for a serious foul.

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

stop

1. genitive plural of stopa

stop

1. second-person singular imperative of stopit

• “stop”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “stop”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

stop

1. imperative of stoppe

• IPA^(key): /stɔp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: stop
• Rhymes: -ɔp

From Middle Dutch stoppe. See the verb stoppen.

stop m (plural stoppen, diminutive stopje n)

1. an action of stopping, cessation
2. a plug for a sink, a stopper
3. an electric fuse

   Synonyms: smeltstop, zekering

• smeltstop
• stopcontact
• stoppenkast

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

stop

1. inflection of stoppen:
   1. first-person singular present indicative
   2. (in case of inversion) second-person singular present indicative
   3. imperative

• post
• spot

From English stop.

• IPA^(key): /ˈstop/, [ˈs̠to̞p]
• Rhymes: -op
• Syllabification^(key): stop
• Hyphenation^(key): stop

stop

1. (informal) stop (halt)

   Synonym: seis

2. stop (end-of-sentence indicator in telegrams)

• “stop”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

1792. Borrowed from English stop.

• IPA^(key): /stɔp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Hérault)):

  (file)

stop!

1. stop!

stop m (uncountable)

1. stop sign
2. hitchhiking

• auto-stop
• stop américain
• stop-motion
• stopper

• non-stop

• → Moroccan Arabic: سطوب

• “stop”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• post, pots, spot, tops

Orthographic borrowing from English stop.

• IPA^(key): [ˈʃtopː], [ˈʃtop]
• Rhymes: -opː, -op

stop

1. halt! stop!

stop

1. stop (used to indicate the end of a sentence in a telegram)

stop (plural stopok)

1. (colloquial) stop sign (a red sign on the side of a street instructing vehicles to stop)

   Nem állt meg a stopnál. ― He ran the stop sign.

2. (colloquial) hitchhike (an act of hitchhiking, trying to get a ride in a passing vehicle while standing at the side of a road)

• stopfürdő
• stoptábla

• setop (colloquial)

From Dutch stop, Middle Dutch stoppe, from Middle Dutch stoppen, from Old Dutch *stoppon, from Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn. Doublet of setop.

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈstop/ [ˈst̪ɔp̚]
• Rhymes: -op
• Syllabification: stop

stop

1. to stop

   Synonyms: berhenti, terhenti

• “stop”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

• sdop (obsolete)^[1]

Borrowed from English stop, from Middle English stoppen, from Old English stoppian (“to stop, close”).

• (Munster, Connacht) IPA^(key): /sˠt̪ˠɔpˠ/^[2]
• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /sˠt̪ˠapˠ/^[3]

stop (present analytic stopann, future analytic stopfaidh, verbal noun stopadh, past participle stoptha)

1. to stop

• stad

stop m (genitive singular stop, nominative plural stopanna)

1. a stop (place to get on and off line buses or trams; interruption of travel; device to block path)

• stad

• Dinneen, Patrick S. (1927), “stop; stopaim”, in Foclóir Gaeḋilge agus Béarla [Irish and English Dictionary], 2nd edition, Dublin: Irish Texts Society, page 1129; reprinted with additions 1996, →ISBN
• Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “stopaid”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language
• Ó Dónaill, Niall (1977), “stop”, in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla [Irish–English Dictionary], Dublin: An Gúm, →ISBN

Borrowed from English stop.

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɔp/
• Rhymes: -ɔp
• Hyphenation: stòp

• Audio:

  (file)

stop

1. stop!, halt!

stop m

1. stop (roadsign; bus stop etc.; block)

• post, post-, spot

Borrowed from English stop.

stop!

1. stop!, halt!

• IPA^(key): /stoːp/
• Rhymes: -oːp

stōp

1. first/third-person singular preterite indicative of stæppan

• IPA^(key): /ˈstɔp/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔp
• Syllabification: stop

Deverbal from stopić.

stop m inan

1. (chemistry) alloy (mixture of metals)

   Synonyms: (archaic) aliaż, (obsolete) aligacja

   Mosiądz jest stopem miedzi i cynku. ― Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc.

stop

1. second-person singular imperative of stopić

Borrowed from English stop.

stop

1. cool your heels!, cool your jets!, hold your horses!, stop!, whoa! (slow down)

   Synonyms: hola, wolnego, z wolna

2. stop!, whoa! (you should not have done/said that)

   Synonyms: hola, wolnego, z wolna

stop m inan

1. stop sign

   Jechał dalej, bo nie zauważył stopu.

   He continued to drive because he hadn't noticed the stop sign.

2. (colloquial) vehicle's brake light

   Uderzyłam w niego, bo nie zaświecił mu się stop i nie wiedziałam, że ostro hamuje.

   I hit his car because his brake light didn't flash and I didn't know he was braking hard.

3. (colloquial) hitchhiking

   Często podróżuję na stopa.

   I often hitchhike.

• “stop”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[4] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “stop”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[5] (in Polish)

Unadapted borrowing from English stop.

stop m (plural stops)

1. stop (function or button that causes a device to stop operating)
2. (uncountable) a game in which the players write on paper one word from each category (animal, fruit, etc.), all beginning with the same letter, as quickly as possible. In Spanish: tutti frutti

   Synonym: adedanha

3. (stock market) stop loss order (order to close one’s position if the market drops to a specified price level)
4. (Brazil, colloquial) stop; end (the act of putting a stop to something)

   Precisamos dar um stop na nossa preguiça.

   We need to put an end to our laziness.

5. (Portugal) stop sign

   Ia sendo atropelado, porque o condutor não parou no stop. ― I was almost run over because the driver did not stop at the stop sign.

stop!

1. said by a player of the game of stop to cease the current turn, after which the players count how many words they wrote

• CEP (acronym of "cidade, estado, país", meaning "city, state, country", a category in the game of stop)

• Stop! on the Portuguese Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^pt
• “stop”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “stop”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from French stop, from English stop.

• IPA^(key): /stop/

stop n (uncountable)

1. stop

Unadapted borrowing from English stop.

• IPA^(key): /esˈtop/ [esˈt̪op]
• Rhymes: -op

stop

1. stop

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “stop”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

From Old Norse staup (“small glass for liquor”).

stop n

1. a beer mug, a stein
2. a stoup
3. (chiefly historical) a unit of volume equal to approximately 1.3 liters

• kanna
• kvarter
• sejdel
• stånka

• “stop”, in Svensk ordbok [Dictionary of Swedish] (in Swedish)
• “stop”, in Svenska Akademiens ordlista [Wordlist of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)
• “stop”, in Svenska Akademiens ordbok [Dictionary of the Swedish Academy] (in Swedish)

• post