stop short
Idioms-
Also, stop one short . Check abruptly, as in When we tried to cross the street, the barrier stopped us short . [Early 1300s]
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Cause someone to stop speaking, as in I was about to tell them the date when my father stopped me short . [Late 1800s]
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stop short of . Not go so far as to do or say something. For example, He may embroider the truth but he stops short of actually lying . This usage was first recorded in 1818.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The FT suggests the chancellor is considering measures to tackle child poverty which stop short of abolishing the limit altogether.
From BBC
Most importantly, however, the history of “God’s image” cannot stop short in secularism.
While dating pigments and other elements to Malevich's lifetime, the reports stop short of claiming the works were painted by the artist.
From BBC
Neoliberal Democrats often serve such conservatives as convenient scapegoats because they, too, stop short of challenging capitalism’s relentless dissolution of civic-republican virtue.
From Salon
It will be enough to harm their opponent, especially their infrastructure assets, but stop short of being an attributable act of war.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
