| • | To close, as an aperture, by filling or by obstructing;
   as, to stop the ears; hence, to stanch, as a wound. | 
											
															| • | To obstruct; to render impassable; as, to stop a way,
   road, or passage. | 
											
															| • | 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. | 
											
															| • | 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. | 
											
															| • | 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. | 
											
															| • | To point, as a composition; to punctuate. | 
											
															| • | To make fast; to stopper. | 
											
															| • | To cease to go on; to halt, or stand still; to come to a
   stop. | 
											
															| • | To cease from any motion, or course of action. | 
											
															| • | To spend a short time; to reside temporarily; to stay; to
   tarry; as, to stop with a friend. | 
											
															| • | The act of stopping, or the state of being stopped; hindrance
   of progress or of action; cessation; repression; interruption; check;
   obstruction. | 
											
															| • | That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; as obstacle; an
   impediment; an obstruction. | 
											
															| • | 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. | 
											
															| • | 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. | 
											
															| • | 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. | 
											
															| • | 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. | 
											
															| • | 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. | 
											
															| • | The diaphragm used in optical instruments to cut off the
   marginal portions of a beam of light passing through lenses. | 
											
															| • | 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. | 
											
															| • | 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. |