STOP Stop, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stopped; p. pr. & vb. n. Stopping.] Etym: [OE. stoppen, AS. stoppian (in comp.); akin to LG. & D. stoppen, G. stopfen, Icel. stoppa, Sw. stoppa, Dan. stoppe; all probably fr. LL. stopare, stupare, fr. L. stuppa the coarse part of flax, tow, oakum. Cf. Estop, Stuff, Stupe a fomentation.]
1. To close, as an aperture, by filling or by obstructing; as, to stop the ears; hence, to stanch, as a wound. Shak.
2. To obstruct; to render impassable; as, to stop a way, road, or passage.
3. To arrest the progress of; to hinder; to impede; to shut in; as, to stop a traveler; to stop the course of a stream, or a flow of blood.
4. To hinder from acting or moving; to prevent the effect or efficiency of; to cause to cease; to repress; to restrain; to suppress; to interrupt; to suspend; as, to stop the execution of a decree, the progress of vice, the approaches of old age or infirmity. Whose disposition all the world well knows Will not be rubbed nor stopped. Shak.
5. (Mus.)
Defn: To regulate the sounds of, as musical strings, by pressing them against the finger board with the finger, or by shortening in any way the vibrating part.
6. To point, as a composition; to punctuate. [R.] If his sentences were properly stopped. Landor.
7. (Naut.)
Defn: To make fast; to stopper.