stop 
Nor stops, for one bad cork, his butler's pay. 
Pope, Imit. of Horace, II. i> fi3. 
9. To cease from ; discontinue ; bring to a stop. 
When the crickets slapped their cry, 
When the owls forbore a term, 
You heard music ; that was I. 
Browning, Serenade at the Villa. 
10. Ill musical instruments: (a) Of the lute and 
viol classes, to press (a string) with the finger 
so as to shorten its vibrating length, and thus 
raise the pitch of the tone produced from it. 
(6) Of the wind group generally, to close (a fin- 
ger-hole in the tube) so as to change the nodes 
of the vibrating column of air, and thus alter 
the pitch of the tone, (c) Of wind-instruments 
of the trumpet class, to insert the hand into (the 
bell) so as to shorten the length of the vibrating 
column of air, and thus to raise the pilch of 
the tone. 11. Naut., to make fast with a small 
line: as, to stop a line to a harpoon-staff. 12. 
To put the stops, or marks of punctuation, in ; 
point, as a written composition; punctuate. 
If his sentences were properly stopped. 
Landor. (Imp. Diet.) 
13. In masonry, plastering, etc., to point or 
dress over (an imperfect or damaged place in a 
wall) by covering it with cement or plaster. 
14. In hort., same as top. 
After the end of July it is not advisable to continue the 
topping technically stopping of the young shoots. 
Encyc. Brit., XII. 264. 
15. To ward off; parry. [Pugilistic slang.] 
A stoppingoystert. See oyster. Stopping the glass. 
See glass. To Stop a gap. See gap. To Stop a line. 
See lineZ. To stop down a lens, in photog., etc., to re- 
duce the amount of light admitted through a lens by using 
stops or diaphragms. Sees(opl,.,12. To Stop off. (a) 
In founding, to fill in (a part of a mold) with sand to pre- 
vent metal from running into that part when the casting 
is made. The form of the casting can frequently be thus 
changed without the expense of altering a pattern or mak- 
ing a new pattern. (6) In galvanoplastic operations, to 
apply a varnish to (parts of a plate or objectX to prevent 
the deposit of metal upon the varnished parts during im- 
mersion in the gilding or electroplating solution. To 
stop one's mouth, to silence one ; especially, to silence 
one by a sop or bribe. 
Let repentance slop your mouth ; 
Learn to redeem your fault. 
Ford, Lover's Melancholy, iv. 1. 
If you would have her silent, stop her mouth with that 
ring. W ycherley, Gentleman Dancing-Master, v. 1. 
To stop out. (a) In the arts, to protect (a surface, etc.) 
from chemical or other action by covering with a coating : 
as, in photography, to cover with paint, paper, etc., as parts 
of a negative which are not to be printed ; in electrotyping, 
to cover with wax. as parts of the black-leaded mold, to 
prevent the deposit of copper on those parts ; in etching, 
to cover with a varnish or other resisting composition, as 
parts of a plate which are not to be bitten by the acid. 
(6) Theat., to cover (some of the teeth) with black wax, 
so as to make them invisible. =Syn. 1 and 4. To interrupt, 
block, blockade, barricade, intercept, end. 9. To sus- 
pend, intermit. 
II. intrant. 1. To check one's self; leave 
off; desist; stay; halt; come to a stand or 
stop, as in walking, speaking, or any other ac- 
tion or procedure. 
Why stops my lord ? shall I not hear my task ? 
SAai.,3Hen. VI.,iii. 2. 52. 
Terence . . . always judiciously stops short before he 
comes to the downright pathetic. 
Goldsmith, Sentimental Comedy. 
No rattling wheels stop short before these gates. 
Cowper, Task, iv. 144. 
2. To discontinue; come to an end; cease to 
be: as, the noise stopped; an annuity stops. 
3. To make a halt or a stay of longer or shorter 
duration; tarry; remain. 
We . . . went about half a mile to the east of Tortura, 
not designing to stop there. 
Pococke, Description of the East, II. i. 60. 
Mr. Bronte and old Tabby went to bed. . . . But Char- 
lotte . . . stopped up ... till her weak eyes failed to 
read or to sew. Mrs. Gaskett, Charlotte Bronte, II. 121. 
"I would rather sfwabed," said I; "what have I to do 
with fighting?" S. D. Blackmore, Lorna Doone, Ixiv. 
I've been up country some weeks, stopping with my 
mother. 0. Jewett, Deephaven, p. 17. 
4. To intercept, ward off, or parry a blow. [Pu- 
gilistic slang.] 
Don't stop with your head too frequently. 
A. L. Gordon, In Utrumque Paratus. 
To stop Off or over, to make a brief or incidental stay 
at some point in the course of a journey ; lie off or over : 
also used as a noun or an adjective : as, a stop-over check ; 
the ticket allows a stop -of in Chicago. [Colloq.] To stop 
out, to stay out all night, as in the streets, or away from 
one's proper lodging-place. 
Mr. Hall, at Bow-street, only says, "Poor boy, let him 
go. " But it 's only when we've done nothiuk but stop out 
that he says that. 
Mayhem, London Labour and London Poor, II. 563. 
stpp 1 (stop), Ji. [<stop, r.] 1. The act of stop- 
ping, in any sense, (a) A filling or closing up. 
5967 
A breach that craves a quick expedient stop ! 
Shak., 2 Hon. VI., iii. 1. 288. 
(6) An impeding or hindering ; obstruction ; stoppage. 
What 's he? One sent, 
I feare, from ray dead mother, to make stop 
Of our intended voyage. Brome, Antipodes, i. 7. 
(c) A pause ; a stand ; a halt. 
When he took leave now, he made a hundred stops, 
Desir'd an hour, but half an hour, a minute. 
Fletcher, Humorous Lieutenant, iii. 1. 
Mrs. Crummies advancing with that stage walk which 
consists of a stride and a stop alternately. 
Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby, \\ v 
('') Termination ; ending. 
How kingdoms sprung, and how they made their stop, 
I well observed. J. Beaumont, Psyche, ii. 49. 
(c) A stay ; a tarrying. 
Coming to the Corner above Bethlehem Gate, [we] made 
a stop there, in order to expect the return of our Messen- 
ger. Maundrell, Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 67. 
2f. A state of hesitation or uncertainty; a stand- 
At which sudden question, Martius was a little at a stop. 
Bacon, Holy War. 
3. That which stops or hinders ; especially, an 
obstacle or impediment ; specifically, a weir. 
He that is used to go forward, and flndeth a stop, falleth 
out of his own favour. Bacon, Empire (ed. 1887). 
What they called stops . . . were in effect wears or 
kidels. 
Sir J. Hawkins, in Walton's Complete Angler, p. 274, note. 
4. In musical instruments: (a) Of the lute and 
viol classes, a pressure on a string so as to short- 
en its vibrating length, and raise the pitch of 
its tone. (6) Of wind-instruments, the closing 
of a finger-hole in the tube so as to alter the 
pitch of its tone, (c) Of wind-instruments of 
the trumpet class, the inserting of the hand into 
the bell so as to raise the pitch of the tone. 
5. Any lever or similar device for thus stopping 
a string or finger-hole. 
His jesting spirit, which is now crept into a lute-string 
and now governed by stops. Shak., Much Ado, ill. 2. 62. 
In every instrument are all tunes to him that has the 
skill to find out the stops. Brome, Sparagus Garden, iii. 4. 
6. In an organ, a graduated set of pipes of 
the same kind, and giving tones of the same 
quality. A complete stop has at least one pipe for each 
digital of the keyboard to which it belongs ; if a stop has 
less, it is called a partial stop; if more, it is called a com- 
pound stop or mixture-stop. The number of pipes consti- 
tuting a stop varies according to the compass of the key- 
board to which It belongs, the usual number being now 
sixty-one for manual keyboards, and either twenty-seven 
or thirty for pedal keyboards, while mixture-stops have 
between twice and five times as many. Stops are various- 
ly classified, as follows : (a) As to general quality of tone, 
the principal qualities recognized being the or^an-tone 
(as in the open diapason, the octave, the fifteenth, etc.), 
the flute-tone (as in the bourdon, the stopped diapason, the 
melodia, the flute, etc.), the string-tone (as in tne viol da 
gamba, the viollna, the dulciana, etc.), and the reed-tone 
(as in the oboe, the clarinet, the trumpet, etc.). The first 
three groups are also called flue-stops, and the last reed- 
stops, from the construction of their pipes (see pipe*, 2). (6) 
As to the pitch of the tones relative to the digitals used, 
the two classes being foundation- and mutation-stops, of 
which the former give tones exactly corresponding to the 
normal pitch of the digitals, while the latter give tones 
distant from that pitch by some fixed interval, like one, 
two, or three octaves, or even a twelfth. Foundation-stops 
are usually called eight-feet stops, because the length of 
an open pipe sounding the second C below middle C is 
approximately eight feet ; while for an analogous reason 
mutation-stops sounding an octave below the normal pitch 
of the digitals are called sixteen-feet stops; those sounding 
the octave above, four-feet stops; those sounding the 
second octave above, two-feet stops, etc. The specific 
names of stops are not only numerous, but often vary 
without sufficient reason. Some names have a merely 
technical significance, as diapason, principal, etc. ; some 
indicate the instrument which they are intended to imi- 
tate, as flute, trumpet, violoncello, etc. ; while others mark 
the extent of the mutation produced, as octave, twelfth, 
quint, etc. Each partial organ has its own stops, which 
can be sounded only by means of the digitals of Its own 
keyboard. The pipes of a stop are usually arranged in a 
transverse row on the wind-chest, the order of disposition, 
or plantation, varying somewhat. Under them, and be- 
tween the upper and middle boards of the chest, is a mov- 
able strip of wood called a slider, which (together with 
both these boards) is perforated with holes corresponding 
to the plantation of tlie pipes. The position of the slider 
la controlled through a system of levers by a handle near 
the keyboard called a register, stop-knob, or stop. When 
this handle is pulled out or drawn, the holes of the slider 
are coincident with those of the two boards, so that the air 
can pass freely from the pallets Into the pipes ; when the 
handle is pushed in, the holes of the slider are not coin- 
cident with those of the two boards, and communication 
between the pallets and the pipes is cut off. In the one 
case the stop is said to be "on," in the other "off." When 
the slider controlling the use of the upper pipes of a stop 
is separated from that controlling the lower, the stop is 
called divided. Since the handles controlling the use of 
the pipes or stops proper are made of the same general 
shape as those controlling various mechanical appliances, 
like couplers, the former are also called sounding or speak- 
ing stops, in distinction from the latter, or mechanical stop*. 
Stops whose quality or power of tone is decidedly Individ- 
ual, so as to fit them for the performance of solo melodies, 
are called solo stops. See organ, reed-organ, pipe, etc. 
stop-collar 
The pathetic stop of Petrarch's IHH -tical nrgan was one 
he could pull out at pleasm > . 
Lowell, Among my Books, 1st SIT., i> 
7. Same its xl<>i>-l,-it<il>. 8. )>l. In the harpsi- 
chord, handles controlling levers by which the 
position of the jacks could be vaned so as t<> 
alter the force or quality of the tunes produced. 
9. A mark to indicate a stop or pause in 
reading; a mark of punctuation. 
I can write fast and fair. 
Most true orthography, and observe my stops. 
Midilli Idei W'.iiM-n. iii. -j 
Who walked so slowly, talked in such a hurry. 
And with such wild contempt for stop* and I.inilK-y Mur- 
ray ! C. S. Calverley, Isabel. 
10. Iii jiiirri/, one of the pieces of wood nailed 
on the frame of a door to form the recess or 
rebate into which the door shuts. 1 1 . Xim t. : 
(H) A projection at the head of a lower mast, 
supporting the trestletrees. (6) A bit of small 
line used to lash or fasten anything temporarily : 
as, hammock x^w, awning-ffop*. 12. In /'- 
tics, a perforated diaphragm inserted between 
the two combinations of a double lens, or placed 
in front of a single lens, to intercept the ex- 
treme rays that disturb the perfection of the 
image. The practical effect of the stop is to increase 
the depth of the focus and sharpness of definition, but to 
diminish the illumination in the exact ratio of the diame- 
ter of the stop to that of the lens, and hence, in photogra- 
phy, to increase correspondingly the necessary time of ex- 
posure. 
Microscopes, in which, whatever be the size of the lens 
itself, the greater portion of its surface is rendered inop- 
erative by a stop. W. B. Carpenter, Micros., 10. 
13. In bookbinding, a small circular finishing- 
tool used by bookbinders to stop a line or fillet 
at its intersection with another line. 14. In 
lace-manuf. (in the application of the Jacquard 
attachment described under loom, 2, to a lace- 
frame), a point at which the different sets of 
warp-threads are concentrated or brought to a 
sort of focus, and which in the design of a pat- 
tern is taken as a basis for measurement in de- 
termining the distances the respective threads 
in the set must be moved to form the desired 
pattern. The movements of the mechanism 
are adjusted in accordance with these measure- 
ments. 15. In phonetics, an alphabetic sound 
involving a complete closure of the mouth-or- 
gans; a mute; a check. 16. The concavity 
of the profile of a dog's face, specially marked 
in the bulldog and pug. 17. In fencing, the ac- 
tion whereby a fencer, instead of parrying a 
blow and then thrusting, allows a careless op- 
ponent to run on his sword-point. He may hasten 
the stop by extending the sword-arm. (See stop-thrust.) 
The stop is discouraged in fencing as a game, since much 
use of it shortens the passages, and destroys combinations 
of feints, disengagements, coupes, etc. Double stop. 
See single stop. Full stop, (a) A period, (b) In lute- 
playing: (1) A chord followed by a pause. (2) A chord In 
producing which all the strings are stopped by the fingers. 
Geneva stop. See Geneva movement, under movement. 
Half -Stop, in an organ, a stop which contains half, or 
about half, the full number of stops. Harmonic stop. 
See harmonic. Incomplete or imperfect stop. See 
incomplete. Open stop, in organ-building, a stop whose 
pipes are open at the upper end. Pedal stop. Seepeda/. 
Service Stop, in railroading, a stop made ny a railway- 
train, in the regular way and at stations designated by the 
regulation schedule, as distinguished from an emergency 
stop. Single stop, in ship-building, the scoring down of 
the carlines between the beams, by which means a carline 
is prevented from sinking any lower than its intended 
position. The double stop is generally used for deeper 
carlines than the single stop. To bunt upon the stop*. 
to hunt with or like a stop-hound that is, slowly and 
with frequent pauses; hence, to be lukewarm. 
If any [Christian] step a little forward, do not the rest 
hunt upon the stop f Rev. S. Ward, Sermons, p. 91. 
To put a Stop to, to cause to stop, temporarily or per- 
manently; break off; end. =Syn. 1. Stop, Cessation, Stay, 
Suspension, Intermission, Pause, Rest. These words may 
denote the failure or interruption of forward motion or of 
activity. Stop is an energetic word, but the most general : 
it is opposed to going forward or going on; cessation may 
be temporary or final, and is opposed to continuance; a 
stay is a stop viewed as a lingering or delay : as, a short 
stay in the place; or, as a legal term, simply a stop: as, a 
stay of proceedings; suspension is a complete but pre- 
sumably temporary stop : as, a suspension of work or pay ; 
intermission is a strictly temporary stop; pause is a brief 
stop, in full expectation of going on ; rest is a stop for re- 
freshment from weariness. 
stop 2 (stop), n. [< ME. stoppe, < AS. stoppa, a 
bucket or pail : see stoop 2 .] A bucket ; a pail ; 
a small well-bucket; a milk-pail. HalliweV. 
[Prov. Eng.] 
StOp 3 t, " A Middle English form of stoop 2 . 
stop-cock (stop'kok), M. A faucet with a valve 
of some form, operated by a handle : used to 
open or close a pipe or passage for water, gas, 
etc. Such cocks are sometimes made self-clos- 
ing, to prevent waste. 
stop-collar (stop'kol'ar), . In niach., an ad- 
justable collar which can be placed and held 
