Skip to definition.
Get the FREE one-click dictionary software for Windows or the iPhone/iPad and Android apps


Noun: stopping  stó-ping
  1. Fastener consisting of a narrow strip of welded metal used to join steel members
    - fillet
     
  2. The kind of playing that involves pressing the fingers on the strings of a stringed instrument to control the pitch
    "the violinist's stopping was excellent"
Verb: stop (stopped,stopping)  stóp
  1. Come to a halt, cease moving
    "the car stopped"; "She stopped in front of a store window";
    - halt
     
  2. Put an end to a state or an activity
    "stop teasing your little brother";
    - discontinue, cease, give up, quit, lay off, surcease [archaic]
     
  3. Prevent from happening or developing
    "stop the process";
    - halt, block, kibosh [informal], kybosh [informal]
     
  4. Interrupt a trip
    "we stopped at Aunt Mary's house"; "they stopped for three days in Florence"; "we stopped over at Aunt Mary's house";
    - stop over
     
  5. Cause to end
    "stop a car"; "stop the thief"
     
  6. Prevent completion
    "stop the project";
    - break, break off, discontinue
     
  7. Hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of
    "stop the growth of communism in South East Asia";
    - check, turn back, arrest, contain, hold back
     
  8. Seize on its way
    "The fighter plane was ordered to stop an aircraft that had entered the country's airspace";
    - intercept
     
  9. Have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical
    "Your rights stop where you infringe upon the rights of other";
    - end, finish, terminate, cease
     
  10. Render unsuitable for passage
    "stop the busy road";
    - barricade, block, blockade, block off, block up, bar
     
  11. Stop and wait, as if awaiting further instructions or developments
    "stop a moment!";
    - hold on

Derived forms: stoppings

See also: keep

Type of: block, break, break up, catch, close up, cut off, defend, disrupt, end, fastener, fastening, fixing, forbid, foreclose, forestall, grab, holdfast, impede, interrupt, jam, obstruct, obturate, occlude, playing, preclude, prevent, take hold of, terminate

Antonym: go, start

Encyclopedia: Stop, Or My Dog Will Shoot!