halt

views updated May 23 2018

halt1 / hôlt/ • v. bring or come to an abrupt stop: [tr.] there is growing pressure to halt the bloodshed | [intr.] she halted in mid-sentence. ∎  [in imper.] used as a military command to bring marching soldiers to a stop: company, halt!• n. a suspension of movement or activity, typically a temporary one: a halt in production | a bus screeched to a halt.PHRASES: call a halt demand or order a stop: he decided to call a halt to all further discussion.halt2 archaic • adj. lame.• v. [intr.] walk with a limp: he halted slightly in his walk. ∎  hesitate; waver: that night the ingénue halted in her lines and put no heart into her work.

halt

views updated May 11 2018

halt2 temporary stoppage on a march or journey. XVII (earlier †alto XVI, †alt XVII). orig. in phr. make halt — G. halt machen (whence also F. faire halte, It. far alto); in the G. phr. halt is prob. orig. based on the imper. (‘stop’, ‘stand still’) of halten HOLD1.
Hence vb. XVII.

halt

views updated Jun 11 2018

halt (or HALT) A program instruction that stops execution of the program. Originally a halt instruction actually halted the processor (hence the name), but now it more often causes a trap into the operating system so that the operating system can take over control and, for example, start another program.

halt

views updated May 23 2018

halt1 (arch.) lame. OE. h(e)alt = OS. halt, OHG, halz, ON. haltr, Goth. halts :- Gmc. *χaltaz, of unkn. orig.
So halt vb. be lame OE.; waver XIV; proceed lamely XV. — OE. healtian, corr. to OS. halton, OHG. halzēn, f. the adj.

Halt

views updated May 23 2018

Halt

a stand of armed men.

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