Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Stop \Stop\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Stopped}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Stopping}.] [OE. stoppen, AS. stoppian (in comp.); akin to
   LG. & D. stoppen, G. stopfen, Icel. stoppa, Sw. stoppa, Dan.
   stoppe; all probably fr. LL. stopare, stupare, fr. L. stuppa
   the coarse part of flax, tow, oakum. Cf. {Estop}, {Stuff},
   {Stupe} a fomentation.]
   1. To close, as an aperture, by filling or by obstructing;
      as, to stop the ears; hence, to stanch, as a wound.
      --Shak.

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

   3. 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.

   4. 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.

            Whose disposition all the world well knows Will not
            be rubbed nor stopped.                --Shak.

   5. (Mus.) 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.

   6. To point, as a composition; to punctuate. [R.]

            If his sentences were properly stopped. --Landor.

   7. (Naut.) To make fast; to stopper.

   Syn: To obstruct; hinder; impede; repress; suppress;
        restrain; discontinue; delay; interrupt.

   {To stop off} (Founding), to fill (a part of a mold) with
      sand, where a part of the cavity left by the pattern is
      not wanted for the casting.

   {To stop the mouth}. See under {Mouth}.