Meaning of stop short | Babel Free

Definitions

1. To come to a sudden and unexpected stop, particularly while speaking or driving a vehicle.
2. To voluntarily cease an attempt to reach a certain point.
   usually, with-of
3. To come to a stop before reaching a certain point.
   with-of

Examples

“He had only taken a step forward into the room when he again stopped short to exclaim.”

“Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.”

“He stopped short of saying the story was true but accused the palace of lying when they "squashed" it.”

“Thirteen people were injured in August 1957 when this Bristol freighter skidded on the runway at Southend Airport when landing with a flight from Calais. It ploughed through the boundary fence, but thankfully stopped short of the railway and the 1,500V overhead wires. A tripwire was installed on this section of Shenfield-Southend line to warn train drivers of instances such as this.”

“He, too, had a split beard of the same square cut, a cleft in his chin, and a squint. His hair, his eyes, in a loose way his whole aspect, resembled the face of the khan.>br>The resemblance stopped short in the matter of the soul; for the fellow looked dreamy and kind.”

CEFR level