STOP, verb transitive [G., to stop to check, to pose, to fill, to cram, to stuff, to quilt, to darn, to mend. See Stifle. Latin , tow; to stuff, to crowd; to be stupefied, whence stupid, stupor, [that is, to stop or a stop ] The primary sense is either to cease to move, or to stuff, to press, to thrust in, to cram; probably the latter.]

1. To close, as an aperture, by filling or by obstructing; as, to stop a vent; to stop the ears; to stop wells of water. 2 Kings 3:19.

2. To obstruct; to render impassable; as, to stop a way, road or passage.

3. To hinder; to impede; to arrest progress; as, to stop a passenger in the road; to stop the course of a stream.

4. To restrain; to hinder; to suspend; as to stop the execution of a decree.

5. To repress; to suppress; to restrain; as, to stop the progress of vice.

6. To hinder; to check; as, to stop the approaches of old age or infirmity.

7. To hinder from action or practice.

Whose disposition, all the world well knows, will not be rubbd nor stoppd.

8. To put an end to any motion or action; to intercept; as, to stop the breath; to stop proceedings.

9. To regulate the sounds of musical strings; as, to stop a string.

10. In seamanship, to make fast.

11. To point; as a written composition. [Not in use.]

STOP, verb intransitive

1. To cease to go forward.

Some strange commotion is in his brain; he bites his lip, and starts; stops on a sudden, looks upon the ground---

2. To cease from any motion or course of action. When you are accustomed to a course of vice, it is very difficult to stop

The best time to stop is at the beginning.

STOP, noun

1. Cessation of progressive motion; as, to make a stop

2. Hindrance of progress; obstruction; act of stopping.

Occult qualities put a stop to the improvement of natural philosophy--

3. Repression; hindrance of operation or action.

It is a great step towards the mastery of our desires, to give this stop to them.

4. Interruption.

These stops of thine fright me the more.

5. Prohibition of sale; as the stop of wine and salt.

6. That which obstructs; obstacle; impediment.

A fatal stop travesd their headlong course.

So melancholy a prospect should inspire us with zeal to oppose some stop to the rising torrent.

7. The instrument by which the sounds of wind music are regulated; as the stops of a flute or an organ.

8. Regulation of musical chords by the fingers.

In the stops of lutes, the higher they go, the less distance is between the frets.

9. The act of applying the stops in music.

Th organ-sound a time survives the stop

10. A point or mark in writing, intended to distinguish the sentences, parts of a sentence or clauses, and to show the proper pauses in reading. The stops generally used, are the comma, semi-colon, colon and period. To these may be added the marks of interrogation and exclamation.