verb (used without object)
- to stop; cease moving, operating, etc., either permanently or temporarily: They halted for lunch and strolled about.
verb (used with object)
- to cause to stop temporarily or permanently; bring to a stop: They halted operations during contract negotiations.
noun
- a temporary or permanent stop.
interjection
- (used as a command to stop and stand motionless, as to marching troops or to a fleeing suspect.)
verb (used without object)
- to falter, as in speech, reasoning, etc.; be hesitant; stumble.
- to be in doubt; waver between alternatives; vacillate.
- Archaic. to be lame; walk lamely; limp.
adjective
- Archaic. lame; limping.
noun
- Archaic. lameness; a limp.
- (used with a plural verb) lame people, especially severely lamed ones (usually preceded by the): the halt and the blind.
noun
- an interruption or end to activity, movement, or progress
- mainly British a minor railway station, without permanent buildings
- call a halt to put an end (to something); stop
noun, sentence substitute
- a command to halt, esp as an order when marching
verb
- to come or bring to a halt
verb (intr)
- (esp of logic or verse) to falter or be defective
- to waver or be unsure
- archaic to be lame
adjective
- archaic
- lame
- (as collective noun; preceded by the)the halt
noun
- archaic lameness
“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.
“lame,” in Old English lemphalt “limping,” from Proto-Germanic *haltaz (cf. 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” (cf. Russian koldyka “lame,” Greek kolobos “broken, curtailed”). The noun meaning “one who limps; the lame collectively” is from c.1200.
“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.
see call a halt; come to a halt; grind to a halt.