stop (n.)

  1. the event of something ending; it came to a stop at the bottom of the hill

    [ Syn: halt ]

  2. a restraint that checks the motion of something; he used a book as a stop to hold the door open

    [ Syn: catch ]

  3. an obstruction in a pipe or tube; we had to call a plumber to clear out the blockage in the drainpipe

    [ Syn: blockage , block , closure , occlusion , stoppage ]

  4. the act of stopping something; the third baseman made some remarkable stops; his stoppage of the flow resulted in a flood

    [ Syn: stoppage ]

  5. a brief stay in the course of a journey; they made a stopover to visit their friends

    [ Syn: stopover , layover ]

  6. the state of inactivity following an interruption; the negotiations were in arrest; held them in check; during the halt he got some lunch; the momentary stay enabled him to escape the blow; he spent the entire stop in his seat

    [ Syn: arrest , check , halt , hitch , stay , stoppage ]

  7. a spot where something halts or pauses; his next stop is Atlanta'

  8. a consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it; his stop consonants are too aspirated

    [ Syn: stop consonant , occlusive , plosive consonant , plosive speech sound , plosive ]

  9. a punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations; in England they call a period a stop

    [ Syn: period , point , full stop , full point ]

  10. (music) a knob on an organ that is pulled to change the sound quality from the organ pipes; the organist pulled out all the stops'

  11. a mechanical device in a camera that controls size of aperture of the lens; the new cameras adjust the diaphragm automatically

    [ Syn: diaphragm ]

    stop (v.)

  1. come to a halt, stop moving; the car stopped; She stopped in front of a store window

    [ Syn: halt ]

  2. render unsuitable for passage; block the way; barricade the streets; stop the busy road

    [ Syn: barricade , block , blockade , block off , block up , bar ]

  3. stop and wait, as if awaiting further instructions or developments; Hold on a moment!

    [ Syn: hold on ]

  4. put an end to a state or an activity; Quit teasing your little brother

    [ Syn: discontinue , cease , give up , quit , lay off ]

  5. stop from happening or developing; Block his election; Halt the process

    [ Syn: halt , block , kibosh ]

  6. interrupt a trip; we stopped at Aunt Marys house; they stopped for three days in Florence

    [ Syn: stop over ]

  7. cause to stop; stop a car; stop the thief'

  8. prevent completion; stop the project; break off the negotiations

    [ Syn: break , break off , discontinue ]

  9. hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of; Arrest the downward trend; Check the growth of communism in South East Asia; Contain the rebel movement; Turn back the tide of communism

    [ Syn: check , turn back , arrest , contain , hold back ]

  10. seize on its way; The fighter plane was ordered to intercept an aircraft that had entered the countrys airspace

    [ Syn: intercept ]

  11. have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical; the bronchioles terminate in a capillary bed; Your rights stop where you infringe upon the rights of other; My property ends by the bushes; The symphony ends in a pianissimo

    [ Syn: end , finish , terminate , cease ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2011 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.