Halt

[hawlt] /hɔlt/

verb (used without object)
1.
to stop; cease moving, operating, etc., either permanently or temporarily:
They halted for lunch and strolled about.
verb (used with object)
2.
to cause to stop temporarily or permanently; bring to a stop:
They halted operations during contract negotiations.
noun
3.
a temporary or permanent stop.
interjection
4.
(used as a command to stop and stand motionless, as to marching troops or to a fleeing suspect.)
[hawlt] /hɔlt/
verb (used without object)
1.
to falter, as in speech, reasoning, etc.; be hesitant; stumble.
2.
to be in doubt; waver between alternatives; vacillate.
3.
Archaic. to be lame; walk lamely; limp.
adjective
4.
Archaic. lame; limping.
noun
5.
Archaic. lameness; a limp.
6.
(used with a plural verb) lame people, especially severely lamed ones (usually preceded by the):
the halt and the blind.
/hɔːlt/
noun
1.
an interruption or end to activity, movement, or progress
2.
(mainly Brit) a minor railway station, without permanent buildings
3.
call a halt, to put an end (to something); stop
noun, sentence substitute
4.
a command to halt, esp as an order when marching
verb
5.
to come or bring to a halt
/hɔːlt/
verb (intransitive)
1.
(esp of logic or verse) to falter or be defective
2.
to waver or be unsure
3.
(archaic) to be lame
adjective
4.
(archaic)

noun
5.
(archaic) lameness
n.

“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.
adj.

“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.
v.

“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.

lame on the feet (Gen. 32:31; Ps. 38:17). To “halt between two opinions” (1 Kings 18:21) is supposed by some to be an expression used in “allusion to birds, which hop from spray to spray, forwards and backwards.” The LXX. render the expression “How long go ye lame on both knees?” The Hebrew verb rendered “halt” is used of the irregular dance (“leaped upon”) around the altar (ver. 26). It indicates a lame, uncertain gait, going now in one direction, now in another, in the frenzy of wild leaping.

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