Definition of stop

• v. t. - To close, as an aperture, by filling or by obstructing; as, to stop the ears; hence, to stanch, as a wound.
• v. t. - To obstruct; to render impassable; as, to stop a way, road, or passage.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - 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.
• v. t. - To point, as a composition; to punctuate.
• v. t. - To make fast; to stopper.
• v. i. - To cease to go on; to halt, or stand still; to come to a stop.
• v. i. - To cease from any motion, or course of action.
• v. i. - To spend a short time; to reside temporarily; to stay; to tarry; as, to stop with a friend.
• n. - The act of stopping, or the state of being stopped; hindrance of progress or of action; cessation; repression; interruption; check; obstruction.
• n. - That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; as obstacle; an impediment; an obstruction.
• n. - 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.
• n. - The closing of an aperture in the air passage, or pressure of the finger upon the string, of an instrument of music, so as to modify the tone; hence, any contrivance by which the sounds of a musical instrument are regulated.
• n. - In the organ, one of the knobs or handles at each side of the organist, by which he can draw on or shut off any register or row of pipes; the register itself; as, the vox humana stop.
• n. - A member, plain or molded, formed of a separate piece and fixed to a jamb, against which a door or window shuts. This takes the place, or answers the purpose, of a rebate. Also, a pin or block to prevent a drawer from sliding too far.
• n. - A point or mark in writing or printing intended to distinguish the sentences, parts of a sentence, or clauses; a mark of punctuation. See Punctuation.
• n. - The diaphragm used in optical instruments to cut off the marginal portions of a beam of light passing through lenses.
• n. - The depression in the face of a dog between the skull and the nasal bones. It is conspicuous in the bulldog, pug, and some other breeds.
• n. - 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.