An archaic or dialectal spelling of 'halt,' meaning to stop or come to a standstill.
Middle English variant of 'halt,' which came from Old High German 'halten' meaning 'to hold.' The variant 'hault' represents an older spelling convention that eventually standardized to 'halt.'
This is a spelling ghost—'hault' shows how English spelling was fluid until the 18th century, when dictionaries and printing standardized how words should look on the page.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.