halt

Meanings

Verb

• To limp; move with a limping gait.
• To stand in doubt whether to proceed, or what to do; hesitate; be uncertain; linger; delay; mammer.
• To be lame, faulty, or defective, as in connection with ideas, or in measure, or in versification.
• To waver.
• To falter.
• To stop marching.
• To stop either temporarily or permanently.
• To bring to a stop.
• To cause to discontinue.

Noun

• A cessation, either temporary or permanent.
• A minor railway station (usually unstaffed) in the United Kingdom.
• Lameness; a limp.

Adjective

• Lame, limping.

Origin

• From Middle English halten, from Old English healtian ("to be lame, walk with a limp"), from Proto-Germanic *haltōną. English usage in the sense of 'make a halt' is from the noun. Cognate with North Frisian halte, Swedish halta.
• From Middle French halt, from early modern German halt ("stop!"), imperative of halten. More at hold.
• From Middle English halt, from Old English healt, from Proto-Germanic *haltaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kol-d-, from Proto-Indo-European *kel-. Cognate with Danish halt, Swedish halt.