Defn: Some part of the articulating organs, as the lips, or the tongue and palate, closed (a) so as to cut off the passage of breath or voice through the mouth and the nose (distinguished as a lip-stop, or a front-stop, etc., as in p, t, d, etc.), or (b) so as to obstruct, but not entirely cut off, the passage, as in l, n, etc.; also, any of the consonants so formed. H. Sweet. Stop bead (Arch.), the molding screwed to the inner side of a window frame, on the face of the pulley stile, completing the groove in which the inner sash is to slide. — Stop motion (Mach.), an automatic device for arresting the motion of a machine, as when a certain operation is completed, or when an imperfection occurs in its performance or product, or in the material which is supplied to it, etc. — Stop plank, one of a set of planks employed to form a sort of dam in some hydraulic works. — Stop valve, a valve that can be closed or opened at will, as by hand, for preventing or regulating flow, as of a liquid in a pipe; — in distinction from a valve which is operated by the action of the fluid it restrains. — Stop watch, a watch the hands of which can be stopped in order to tell exactly the time that has passed, as in timing a race. See Independent seconds watch, under Independent, a.
Syn. — Cessation; check; obstruction; obstacle; hindrance; impediment; interruption.
STOPCOCK
Stop"cock`, n.
1. A bib, faucet, or short pipe, fitted with a turning stopper or plug for permitting or restraining the flow of a liquid or gas; a cock or valve for checking or regulating the flow of water, gas, etc., through or from a pipe, etc.
2. The turning plug, stopper, or spigot of a faucet. [R.]
STOPE
Stope, n. Etym: [Cf. Step, n. & v. i.] (Mining)
Defn: A horizontal working forming one of a series, the working faces of which present the appearance of a flight of steps.
STOPE Stope, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stoped; p. pr. & vb. n. Stoping.] (Mining) (a) To excavate in the form of stopes. (b) To fill in with rubbish, as a space from which the ore has been worked out.
STOPE; STOPEN
Stope, Sto"pen, p. p. of Step.
Defn: Stepped; gone; advanced. [Obs.]
A poor widow, somedeal stope in age. Chaucer.