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Added 9 October 2026

halt

/hɒlt/ verb

In Latin: subsisto Wiktionary

verb Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about halt at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

To stop marching.
To stop either temporarily or permanently.
To bring to a stop.

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.

noun

A cessation, either temporary or permanent.
The contract negotiations put a halt to operations.
A minor railway station (usually unstaffed) in the United Kingdom.
The halt itself never achieved much importance, even with workers coming to and from the adjacent works.

adjective

Lame, limping.

Origin

From Middle English halten, from Old English healtian (“to be lame, walk with a limp”), from Proto-West Germanic *haltōn, related to *halt. English usage in the sense of 'make a halt' is from the noun. Cognate with North Frisian halte, Swedish halta.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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