What is "to stop off"

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.