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halt
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
halt
I.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
bring sth to an end/halt (=especially sth bad)
▪ It is our resonsibility to discuss how this conflict can be brought to an end.
come to an abrupt end/halt etc
▪ The bus came to an abrupt halt.
halt the march of time
▪ She was desperate to halt the march of time upon her face and figure.
pulled to a halt
▪ The bus pulled to a halt.
screeched to a halt
▪ The car screeched to a halt.
shuddered to a halt
▪ The train shuddered to a halt.
stop/halt a decline (=stop it from continuing)
▪ These measures are intended to halt the decline in fish populations.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
abrupt
▪ We come to an abrupt halt.
▪ The chase came to an abrupt halt when nine Mexicali police cars stopped the Jetta and its occupants.
▪ She rushed after him, almost bumping into him as he came to an abrupt halt in the kitchen doorway.
▪ His death in a 1956 car crash brought his career to an abrupt halt when he was just 26.
▪ Nutty arrived on time, thudding out of the dusk and pulling to an abrupt halt.
▪ As all the alarming possibilities ran through her head, she gave a loud gulp and came to an abrupt halt.
▪ But she suffered a setback when a bout of glandular fever looked like bringing her season to an abrupt halt.
sudden
▪ At all events the pursuit came to a sudden halt and Henry was able to make good his escape in peace.
▪ The Glory shuddered to a sudden halt on the grassy slope in front of the Monument and they were thrown forward against their seat-belts.
▪ As he reached Bert Shorrocks's place Charlie came to a sudden halt.
▪ They either wobble around on their bikes or screech to a sudden halt.
▪ The taxi swerved out of the Champs Elysées, down the Avenue George-V and came to a sudden halt on the corner.
▪ He came to such a sudden halt that the pedestrian behind only just stopped himself bumping into Adam.
▪ Then it came to a sudden halt and reversed back towards me with a high-pitched whine.
temporary
▪ In August 1870 Nietzsche's work was brought to a temporary halt by the Franco-Prussian war, which had begun in July.
▪ Vardon's success in 1903 put a temporary halt to his triumphs.
▪ The outbreak of war in 1939 brought these pursuits to a temporary halt.
■ VERB
bring
▪ He was run over by at least twelve wagons before the train was brought to an halt.
▪ Drink helped slow it down, but too often brought it to a halt.
▪ But should this bring a halt to lateral thinking?
▪ So the double-decker's journey was brought to a halt at Holborn Circus.
▪ A tug on it sounds a buzzer in the driver's cab and brings him to a halt.
▪ Newfoundland had lost 40,000 jobs and an entire industry was brought to a halt.
▪ The Grand National had been brought to a halt.
▪ In August 1870 Nietzsche's work was brought to a temporary halt by the Franco-Prussian war, which had begun in July.
call
▪ Surely it is time to call a halt to all vehicles on the pavement.
▪ Here General McDowell called a halt.
▪ Stubbornness was an early characteristic, as was the way he would call a halt to any admonishment laid down by Mud.
▪ Objectives of this kind threaten to impoverish the nation and will cause the electorate to call a halt.
▪ But I believe it is better to call a halt now at a point when the option to renew contracts has arisen.
▪ She wanted desperately to call a halt to it, to stamp it out for ever.
▪ With one part of her bemused and disorientated mind she knew that she must call a halt - right now!
▪ Notice that the bell and not the referee calling a halt is the deciding factor here.
come
▪ We smashed through it and came to a halt, a tangle of wire wrapped around the hood.
▪ In the absence of sunlight, solar heating of the surface comes to a halt.
▪ At all events the pursuit came to a sudden halt and Henry was able to make good his escape in peace.
▪ But once adaptation to the new conditions had been achieved, Darwin assumed that evolution would come to a halt.
▪ Sighing, he came to a halt and leaned back against the hedge they were passing.
▪ But this fantastic procedure may soon come to a halt.
draw
▪ The taxi drew to a halt where a purple awning reached out to the edge of the pavement.
▪ The coach drew to a jerky halt near the curbside.
▪ The convoy drew to a halt in front of the hotel.
▪ The coach had drawn to a halt outside the Theater an der Wien.
▪ She stood there while it drew to a halt.
▪ The car drew to a halt alongside the front door, and an instant later the driver's door swung open.
▪ She turned as the car drew to a halt.
grind
▪ Treasury yield drops However, the rally in U. S. Treasuries ground to a halt.
▪ It seemed as though things had ground to a halt in there.
▪ When the Meuse river flooded in 1995, the factory ground to a halt.
▪ The tiny pens, scrawling in palsied traces on endless white ribbons of paper, slowly ground to a halt.
▪ Instead of finding sudden problems you might find that progress slowly grinds to a halt.
▪ He is extremely serious, speaks slowly-almost grinding to a complete halt at times-and is not exactly the happy optimist.
▪ The incident occurred on lap 50, by which time Mansell had already ground to a halt with no gears.
▪ Business ground to a halt throughout much of the Northeast, South and Midwest.
pull
▪ Nutty arrived on time, thudding out of the dusk and pulling to an abrupt halt.
▪ The bus arrived, pulling to a halt in a swirl of dust and exhaust.
screech
▪ A police car emerged from the other alleyway and screeched to a halt ten yards in front of Whitlock, blocking his shot.
▪ When he went to a doctor, he was diagnosed with leukemia, and everything came to a screeching halt.
▪ Ron had pounced from his car, screeching to a halt ten yards ahead of them.
▪ All of which comes to a screeching halt when Capt.
▪ Not ten minutes had elapsed when the first van arrived and not eleven when the second screeched to a halt.
▪ He was on his second initiation raid when Geronimo was captured and it all came to a screeching halt.
▪ She was walking with a friend, when she heard a car screech to a halt behind her.
▪ The driver slammed on the brakes; the Jeep screeched to a halt.
shudder
▪ It burst out of the tunnel in a gale of hot air and shuddered to a halt.
▪ Two blue carriages shudder to a halt beside me, and the train doors open.
skid
▪ It skidded to a halt immediately and rapidly looked away, avoiding the man's gaze.
▪ It skidded to a halt just inside the edge.
▪ He dragged her into the living-room and flung her across it to skid to a halt.
slow
▪ The limousine was finally slowing to a halt and they scrambled for their shoes.
▪ Occasionally he slowed to a near halt, provoking Eng to push him to keep choreographing and to perform adequately.
▪ An up local slows to a halt at the signals on the edge of the woods.
▪ We slowed almost to a halt.
▪ Very soon he slowed to a halt, and then moved back, with exaggerated dignity, to join his companions.
▪ While he was still undecided as to what to do a bus appeared round the corner and slowed to a halt near by.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
come to a halt/stop
▪ Almost at once there was a slight crunch of gravel under wheels as a vehicle came to a halt.
▪ An unshaven old man in a stained jacket comes to a stop beside us.
▪ As it came to a stop, it widened the frenzied cluster of moths surrounding the yellow platform light over his head.
▪ He rose and led them both down the stone steps, coming to a halt at the entrance to the vestry door.
▪ The elevator rose smoothly, then came to a stop.
▪ The score indicates how far the ball bounces forward before it comes to a halt.
▪ The train lurches into movement, then, quickly, comes to a halt.
draw to a halt/stop
▪ She heard a large vehicle draw to a halt behind her on the main road.
▪ She stood there while it drew to a halt.
▪ She turned as the car drew to a halt.
▪ The car drew to a halt alongside the front door, and an instant later the driver's door swung open.
▪ The coach had drawn to a halt outside the Theater an der Wien.
▪ The convoy drew to a halt in front of the hotel.
▪ The taxi drew to a halt where a purple awning reached out to the edge of the pavement.
grind to a halt
▪ Production ground to a halt at five of the factories.
▪ Traffic ground to a halt as we got closer to the accident.
▪ Business ground to a halt throughout much of the Northeast, South and Midwest.
▪ But low hydrogen yields and poisoned catalysts soon had these systems grinding to a halt.
▪ Compare the problems in Glen Nevis where in summer traffic all but grinds to a halt, to see the possible outcome.
▪ It seemed as though things had ground to a halt in there.
▪ Offices, factories, industry, communications, transport ... all of it grinding to a halt.
▪ The co-op went bankrupt during the Great Depression, said Gross, and maintenance slowly ground to a halt.
▪ The tiny pens, scrawling in palsied traces on endless white ribbons of paper, slowly ground to a halt.
▪ Treasury yield drops However, the rally in U. S. Treasuries ground to a halt.
stop/halt (dead) in your tracks
▪ A dreadful thought struck Jean, and she stopped in her tracks, right in the middle of the pavement.
▪ An hour later they were halted in their tracks by a cataract not marked on the map.
▪ Blue speaks her name, in a voice that seems strange to him, and she stops dead in her tracks.
▪ I stopped dead in my tracks, unsure of what to do next.
▪ It had been stopped in its tracks by the Railway Inspectorate and a public outcry.
▪ People stop in their tracks and stare.
▪ Petey stopped dead in his tracks at the question.
▪ The people had stopped in their tracks, women were making their children stand behind them.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Ana just drifted to a halt, turning without demur as Maggie moved her to face the house.
▪ Businessmen, who had generally welcomed the initial actions of the administration, now called for a halt.
▪ Compare the problems in Glen Nevis where in summer traffic all but grinds to a halt, to see the possible outcome.
▪ He staggered to a halt, peering at the houses.
▪ He was run over by at least twelve wagons before the train was brought to an halt.
▪ It burst out of the tunnel in a gale of hot air and shuddered to a halt.
▪ It went on too long, until its recent shuddering halt.
▪ The train has again come to a halt.
II.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
temporarily
▪ Naturally the rest of take-off was temporarily halted while everyone prepared to duck under anything convenient if the bombs exploded.
▪ The repression which followed temporarily halted the labour movement and dealt the party a heavy blow.
▪ Forecasts now differed as to whether economic recovery had temporarily halted or whether a double-dip recession had occurred.
■ NOUN
advance
▪ All this has helped to halt the advance of new tire companies.
attack
▪ It worked and halted the attack.
▪ Humanitarian aid would have to be halted if an attack was sanctioned, Mr Boutros-Ghali added.
▪ Gorbad halted the attack and prepared for a long siege.
attempt
▪ The technique was by Friends of the Earth in an attempt to halt the Wymondham by-pass road scheme in Norfolk.
bid
▪ Loretta Sanchez of Garden Grove will continue indefinitely after Democrats lost a bid to halt it next week.
decline
▪ The measures are designed to halt the sharp decline in shark populations caused by overfishing in recent years.
▪ The Dow Jones Transportation Average halted three days of declines, rising as much as 9. 39 to 1905. 34.
▪ Despite the urgent need to halt economic decline, neither has a clearly defined policy.
▪ The main objectives were now to abolish poverty among children and halt the decline in the birth rate.
▪ Second team bowler Robert Powell is also called up as Builth look to halt their recent decline.
effort
▪ Bridges were reported to have been blown up and roads to the capital blocked in an effort to halt the march.
▪ Its key element was a relaxation of the past two years' tight monetary controls in an effort to halt recession.
▪ More ominously, the effort to halt the nuclear spread could also stall.
▪ It would also put in jeopardy the global effort to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.
expansion
▪ It also decides whether the gravity is strong enough to halt the expansion and bring everything back together again.
▪ If there's enough to close it, there's enough to halt the expansion.
government
▪ Accordingly, efforts have been made by successive governments to halt the growth in public spending.
▪ They were hamstrung when the government halted all nuclear plant construction in 1983, leaving them with unfinished power plants.
▪ The government halted the distribution of petrol and the Committees for the Defence of the Republic began distributing arms.
▪ Greenpeace campaigners called on the Government to halt the work immediately.
growth
▪ Accordingly, efforts have been made by successive governments to halt the growth in public spending.
▪ If not, shortages of the other nutrients, such as nitrogen, could halt the growth benefits of more carbon dioxide.
▪ This policy halted the previously continuous growth of local authority tenancies and contributed to the overall increase in owner occupancy.
▪ Although the soil was wet, it contained sufficient salt to halt the growth of bacteria.
march
▪ Bridges were reported to have been blown up and roads to the capital blocked in an effort to halt the march.
▪ But not even the most stringent economies could halt the march of the inevitable.
▪ So what, if anything, is being done to halt the seemingly relentless march of rainforest destruction?
process
▪ The lack of oxygen halts the burning process half way ... and creates charcoal.
progress
▪ She had been promoted this far; and Tabachnikov was not going to be the one to halt her progress.
project
▪ The lawsuit asks a judge to halt the project until environmental issues are sorted out.
sale
▪ The fresh disclosures will increase the already considerable pressure on the university to halt the sale plan.
▪ I have halted all pending foreclosure sales until they can be further reviewed for discrimination or inconsistency in program delivery.
▪ We call on federal agencies to halt the sale, under government auspices, of pornographic materials.
▪ Clinton is the first president to challenge tobacco companies to halt cigarette sales to teen-agers, Lewis added.
slide
▪ City have gone four games without a goal and Reid wants to halt the slide.
▪ The structure that I have suggested is sufficiently robust to halt that slide and ensure that acute care remains free throughout.
▪ Crosby is determined to buy this week to halt the Roker slide down the First Division table.
▪ Now it believes it has halted the downward slide following a restructuring and product strategy review over the past year.
spread
▪ None has succeeded in halting the spread of violence.
▪ But this will not halt the spread of crypto anarchy.
▪ More ominously, the effort to halt the nuclear spread could also stall.
▪ It would also put in jeopardy the global effort to halt the spread of nuclear weapons.
▪ Such exemplary action would do much to halt the spread of these evil weapons.
track
▪ An hour later they were halted in their tracks by a cataract not marked on the map.
▪ A third cry made both sides halt in their tracks.
▪ Nothing less will halt Thadeus in his tracks.
▪ Rachaela had halted in her tracks.
▪ Seattle was a fine place for tens of thousands to gather and halt them in their tracks.
violence
▪ None has succeeded in halting the spread of violence.
▪ On Sunday, Hamas had issued a statement saying it would halt violence for three months.
work
▪ She said the fighting had halted virtually all relief work in Mogadishu.
▪ Construction was halted when excavation work on the baroque square unearthed the ruins of a medieval synagogue destroyed in 1421.
▪ Greenpeace campaigners called on the Government to halt the work immediately.
▪ But funding problems have halted work at the site, and it is unclear when it will resume.
▪ This is the second time in two years that Strathclyde has threatened to halt work on the Ayr Road Route.
■ VERB
fail
▪ Tories fail to halt pedestrian plan A last-ditch attempt to delay the introduction of pedestrianisation in Darlington town centre was defeated.
▪ Job fears and the mortgage debt trap are failing to halt the housing slump.
help
▪ All this has helped to halt the advance of new tire companies.
try
▪ The alarm went out and environmentalists began to try to halt, if not reverse, the destruction of the remaining park.
▪ Joseph Parylak, sought a similar order last month, trying to halt the test, but was turned down.
▪ It's a desperate double setback for boss Graeme Souness as he tries to halt Liverpool's worst start for 38 years.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
stop/halt (dead) in your tracks
▪ A dreadful thought struck Jean, and she stopped in her tracks, right in the middle of the pavement.
▪ An hour later they were halted in their tracks by a cataract not marked on the map.
▪ Blue speaks her name, in a voice that seems strange to him, and she stops dead in her tracks.
▪ I stopped dead in my tracks, unsure of what to do next.
▪ It had been stopped in its tracks by the Railway Inspectorate and a public outcry.
▪ People stop in their tracks and stare.
▪ Petey stopped dead in his tracks at the question.
▪ The people had stopped in their tracks, women were making their children stand behind them.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ All his efforts had failed to halt the increase in street crime.
▪ Heavy rain halted five railroad lines in the Tokyo area.
▪ The government is determined to halt the trade in illegal animal furs.
▪ The taxi halted at the hotel's front door.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Accumulation through dynamic expansion would be halted when the need for more workers drove up wages and eroded profits.
▪ At length Fand halted, spear held aloft.
▪ By 1993 the percentage had dropped to 12. 1 percent, and the trend shows no signs of halting.
▪ By an 8-7 vote, a Senate committee halted the taggant test program.
▪ On Sept. 17 reports stated that tear gas was used to halt protests at a Mandalay high school.
▪ The Trade Union March had been halted by police long before they reached the Square.
▪ There was a statement to be made, a line to be drawn, a trend to be halted.
▪ We halted under a memorial statue to Frederick the Great.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Halt

Halt \Halt\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Halted; p. pr. & vb. n. Halting.]

  1. To hold one's self from proceeding; to hold up; to cease progress; to stop for a longer or shorter period; to come to a stop; to stand still.

  2. To stand in doubt whether to proceed, or what to do; to hesitate; to be uncertain.

    How long halt ye between two opinions?
    --1 Kings xviii. 21.

Halt

Halt \Halt\ (h[add]lt), v. t. (Mil.) To cause to cease marching; to stop; as, the general halted his troops for refreshment.

Halt

Halt \Halt\, a. [AS. healt; akin to OS., Dan., & Sw. halt, Icel. haltr, halltr, Goth. halts, OHG. halz.] Halting or stopping in walking; lame.

Bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.
--Luke xiv. 21.

Halt

Halt \Halt\, n. The act of limping; lameness.

Halt

Halt \Halt\, v. i. [OE. halten, AS. healtian. See Halt, a.]

  1. To walk lamely; to limp.

  2. To have an irregular rhythm; to be defective.

    The blank verse shall halt for it.
    --Shak.

Halt

Halt \Halt\ (h[add]lt), 3d pers. sing. pres. of Hold, contraction for holdeth. [Obs.]
--Chaucer.

Halt

Halt \Halt\ (h[add]lt), n. [Formerly alt, It. alto, G. halt, fr. halten to hold. See Hold.] A stop in marching or walking, or in any action; arrest of progress.

Without any halt they marched.
--Clarendon.

[Lovers] soon in passion's war contest, Yet in their march soon make a halt.
--Davenant.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
halt

"a stop, a halting," 1590s, from French halte (16c.) or Italian alto, ultimately from German Halt, imperative from Old High German halten "to hold" (see hold (v.)). A German military command borrowed into the Romanic languages 16c. The verb in this sense is from 1650s, from the noun. Related: Halted; halting.

halt

"lame," in Old English lemphalt "limping," from Proto-Germanic *haltaz (cognates: Old Saxon, Old Frisian halt, Old Norse haltr, Old High German halz, Gothic halts "lame"), from PIE *keld-, from root *kel- "to strike, cut," with derivatives meaning "something broken or cut off" (cognates: Russian koldyka "lame," Greek kolobos "broken, curtailed"). The noun meaning "one who limps; the lame collectively" is from c.1200.

halt

"to walk unsteadily," early 14c., from Old English haltian "to be lame," from the same source as halt (adj.). The meaning "make a halt" is 1650s, from halt (n.). As a command word, attested from 1796. Related: Halted; halting.

Wiktionary
halt

Etymology 1 vb. 1 (label en intransitive) To limp; move with a limping gait. 2 (label en intransitive) To stand in doubt whether to proceed, or what to do; hesitate; be uncertain; linger; delay; mammer. 3 (label en intransitive) To be lame, faulty, or defective, as in connection with ideas, or in measure, or in versification. Etymology 2

n. 1 A cessation, either temporary or permanent. 2 A minor railway station (usually unstaffed) in the United Kingdom. vb. 1 (lb en intransitive) To stop marching. 2 (lb en intransitive) To stop either temporarily or permanently. 3 (lb en transitive) To bring to a stop. 4 (lb en transitive) To cause to discontinue. Etymology 3

  1. (context archaic English) lame, limping. n. (context dated English) lameness; a limp. v

  2. 1 To limp. 2 To waver. 3 To falter.

Related phrases:
WordNet
halt

adj. disabled in the feet or legs; "a crippled soldier"; "a game leg" [syn: crippled, halting, lame, game]

halt

  1. n. the state of inactivity following an interruption; "the negotiations were in arrest"; "held them in check"; "during the halt he got some lunch"; "the momentary stay enabled him to escape the blow"; "he spent the entire stop in his seat" [syn: arrest, check, hitch, stay, stop, stoppage]

  2. the event of something ending; "it came to a stop at the bottom of the hill" [syn: stop]

  3. an interruption or temporary suspension of progress or movement; "a halt in the arms race"; "a nuclear freeze" [syn: freeze]

  4. v. cause to stop; "Halt the engines"; "Arrest the progress"; "halt the presses" [syn: hold, arrest]

  5. come to a halt, stop moving; "the car stopped"; "She stopped in front of a store window" [syn: stop] [ant: start]

  6. stop from happening or developing; "Block his election"; "Halt the process" [syn: stop, block, kibosh]

  7. stop the flow of a liquid; "staunch the blood flow"; "them the tide" [syn: stem, stanch, staunch]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Halt

Halt may refer to:

  • Halt (railway), a small railway station
  • HLT (x86 instruction)
  • Highly Accelerated Life Test
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "halt".

Halting for refreshment and rest wherever suitable places could be found, and the Adelantado always with the vanguard, in four days they reached the vicinity of the fort, and came up within a quarter of a league of it, concealed by a grove of pine trees.

The Aenean closest to Ivar trembled, rolled over and over, came to a halt and screamed.

Nearly half of the ceiling had collapsed, and the resulting pile of polyp slivers had agglutinated in an alarmingly concave wall, as though the avalanche had halted half-way through.

Halting at last, Rolan opened a narrow door and disappeared into the darkness beyond, whispering for Alec to watch his step just in time to save the boy from tumbling down more stairs that descended less than a pace from the door.

There was an intimacy to the scene that made Alec halt, but before he could withdraw Feeya caught sight of him and broke into a broad, welcoming smile.

Indeed, Alienor had competition for that honor at this moment, for Duncan halted a few paces away to address Eglantine.

If need arose, the Ampersand operation could be halted anytime within the next week-Ferracini and Cassidy at Rome by a message to the American Consulate there, and by similar means in the cases of the others.

Just before sunset Hal called a halt, and they rowed back towards the anchored galleon.

As they approached the assailants halted, and the arquebusiers came forward and took their post in line, to cover by their fire the advance of the storming parties.

Dragged to a halt by the arrestor gear, the MiG paused to spit out the cable, then began following a deck director toward a free space to starboard.

Scant seconds, it seemed, after the COD had been nudged and prodded out of the way, an EA-6B Prowler electronic-warfare aircraft slammed into the deck in a barely controlled crash, yanked to a halt by the arrestor cable.

This layered imaging technique, far more precise than old-fashioned X-raying, allowed one to determine the age of the victim to the decade, judging by the hardening in the articular cartilage and in the blood vessels, since medicine, at the time these people lived, had not yet learned how to halt the changes termed sclerosis.

And yet he felt ashamed that he, as pasha, had not the courage to order a halt, to strike the knives from the hands of the agas.

Volk wird zu ihm halten, auch wenn unsere Aufgabe auf Jahre hinaus nicht leicht sein wird.

The autocar lurched to a halt, and Holmes used the momentum to leap from the seat to the roadway.