stop up

Idioms  

1. Fill a hole or gap, block an opening or passage. For example, We need to stop up the chinks in the walls, or The sink is stopped up; it won't drain. This idiom was at first put simply as stop, the adverb up being added only in the early 1700s.

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Example Sentences

My throat got stopped up so I could hardly say, “Thank you.”

From Literature

Greed also causes overleveraging: You keep adding to a winning position without moving your stop up to protect profits, then suddenly bad news hits, and what was your biggest winner yesterday wipes you out today.

From MarketWatch

The inquest heard this was acceptable within Nottingham City Transport's policies, which allow buses to leave stops up to a minute early.

From BBC

"I now put the food away when I go to bed, but in the morning I've found the towel I've used to stop up the gap is pulled out and chewed too."

From BBC

Others have been stopped up on purpose with cotton balls or whatever else came to hand in an emergency after air valves stuck open.

From Washington Post

Related Words

• arrest
• bar
• blockade
• clog
• close
• close off
• cut off
• deter
• halt
• hinder
• hold up
• impede
• intercept
• prevent
• stall
• stop
• thwart