stope

American

[stohp] / stoʊp /

noun

any excavation made in a mine, especially from a steeply inclined vein, to remove the ore that has been rendered accessible by the shafts and drifts.

verb (used with or without object)

stoped, stoping

to mine or work by stopes.

stope British

/ stəʊp /

noun

a steplike excavation made in a mine to extract ore

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

verb

to mine (ore, etc) by cutting stopes

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of stope

1740–50; apparently < Low German stope; see stoop ²

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.

We need to stope mistaking success for heroism.

From New York Times • Oct. 21, 2017

It was the caved-in stope, the old glory-hole of the Paymaster, and it cut off his last escape.

From Shadow Mountain by Coolidge, Dane

We kind of let him see us leave work in the mine and sneak into the old stope.

From The La Chance Mine Mystery by Gage, George W.

And I blinked as I went out of the white November sunshine into Macartney's new tunnel, and the candlelight of his humming stope.

From The La Chance Mine Mystery by Gage, George W.

If it bursts up in the air the stope roof'll be down on us.

From The La Chance Mine Mystery by Gage, George W.

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023