Stop, while ye may, suspend your mad career!
Cowper.
3. To spend a short time; to reside temporarily; to stay; to tarry; as,
to stop with a friend. [Colloq.]
By stopping at home till the money was gone.
R. D. Blackmore.
To stop over, to stop at a station beyond the time of the departure of
the train on which one came, with the purpose of continuing one's
journey on a subsequent train; to break one's journey. [Railroad Cant,
U.S.]
Stop, n. 1. The act of stopping, or the state of being stopped;
hindrance of progress or of action; cessation; repression;
interruption; check; obstruction.
It is doubtful . . . whether it contributed anything to the stop of
the infection.
De Foe.
Occult qualities put a stop to the improvement of natural
philosophy.
Sir I. Newton.
It is a great step toward the mastery of our desires to give this
stop to them.
Locke.
2. That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; as obstacle; an impediment;
an obstruction.
A fatal stop traversed their headlong course.
Daniel.
So melancholy a prospect should inspire us with zeal to oppose some
stop to the rising torrent.
Rogers.
3. (Mach.) 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.
4. (Mus.) (a) 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.
The organ sound a time survives the stop.
Daniel.
(b) 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.
5. (Arch.) 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.
6. 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.
7. (Opt.) The diaphragm used in optical instruments to cut off the
marginal portions of a beam of light passing through lenses.
8. (Zoöl.) 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.
9. (Phonetics) 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.
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.