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.

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

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

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

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

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

To hinder from action or practice. Whose disposition, all the world well knows, will not be rubbd nor stoppd.

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

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

In seamanship, to make fast.

To point; as a written composition.

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--- .

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.

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

Hindrance of progress; obstruction; act of stopping. Occult qualities put a stop to the improvement of natural philosophy-- .

Repression; hindrance of operation or action. It is a great step towards the mastery of our desires, to give this stop to them.

Interruption. These stops of thine fright me the more.

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

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.

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