Third person singular present of stop, meaning to cease movement or activity. Can also refer to predetermined points along a route or journey.
From Old English stoppian, borrowed from Latin stuppare meaning 'to plug with tow or oakum.' The original sense of blocking or plugging evolved to mean halting any kind of motion or activity.
In linguistics, 'stops' are consonant sounds made by completely blocking airflow (like p, t, k), showing how the word's meaning of 'blocking' applies even to speech production. The phrase 'pull out all the stops' comes from pipe organs, where stops control which pipes produce sound.
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