halt

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /hɒlt/

  • Audio (UK):

    (file)

  • (Conservative RP) IPA^(key): /hɔːlt/
• (US, lot–cloth split) IPA^(key): /hɔlt/
• (General American, cot–caught merger, dialects of Canada) IPA^(key): /hɑlt/
• (Canada, dialects of the US) IPA^(key): /hɒlt/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /hɔlt/
• Rhymes: -ɒlt

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.

halt (third-person singular simple present halts, present participle halting, simple past and past participle halted) (obsolete)

1. (intransitive) To limp; move with a limping gait.
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:

     Here comes Sir Toby halting — you shall hear more; but if he had not been in drink, he would have tickled you othergates than he did.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:

     Do not smile at me that I boast her of,
     For thou shalt find she will outstrip all praise,
     And make it halt behind her.

2. (intransitive) To stand in doubt whether to proceed, or what to do; hesitate; be uncertain; linger; delay; mammer.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, 1 Kings 18:21:

     How long halt ye between two opinions?

3. (intransitive) To be lame, faulty, or defective, as in connection with ideas, or in measure, or in versification.
4. To waver.
5. To falter.

From Middle French halt, from early modern German halt (“stop!”), imperative of halten (“to hold, to stop”). Doublet of hold (see that entry for more information).

halt (third-person singular simple present halts, present participle halting, simple past and past participle halted)

1. (intransitive) To stop marching.
2. (intransitive) To stop either temporarily or permanently.
   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:

     And it was while all were passionately intent upon the pleasing and snake-like progress of their uncle that a young girl in furs, ascending the stairs two at a time, peeped perfunctorily into the nursery as she passed the hallway—and halted amazed.

3. (transitive) To bring to a stop.
4. (transitive) To cause to discontinue.

   The contract negotiations halted operations for at least a week.

• (to stop marching): pause
• (to stop): brake, desist, stay; See also Thesaurus:stop
• (to cause something to stop): freeze, immobilize; See also Thesaurus:immobilize
• (to cause to discontinue): break off, terminate, shut down, stop; See also Thesaurus:desist

halt (plural halts)

1. A cessation, either temporary or permanent.

   The contract negotiations put a halt to operations.

   • 1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed at the [Sheldonian] Theater:

     Without any halt they marched.

   • 1962 April, R. K. Evans, “The Acceptance Testing of Diesel Locomotives”, in Modern Railways, page 268:

     Because most diesel failures can be traced to electrical faults, minor in themselves but often difficult to pin-point, any unscheduled halt during a trial run is often the signal for the frenzied unfolding of wiring diagrams and the appearance of an impressive array of voltmeters and circuit testers.

2. (rail transport) 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.

   • 1956 May, D. B. McNeill, “The Sligo, Leitrim & Northern Counties Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 332:

     The highest point on the line is at milepost 21¾, 367 ft. above sea level. Here there is a halt named Kilmakerrill, after which the line descends to Manorhamilton (24¾ miles).

   • 1961 November, H. G. Ellison, P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 668:

     On once more we swung, bumping uneasily along in the antique narrow-gauge coach, with gloomy woods and gathering night outside, shouts and songs (and quacks) inside—this was not at all the sort of train ordained by the logical strategists in Paris—then grinding to a stop at a mysterious halt which was no more than a nameboard in the pinewoods, without even a footpath leading to it, but nevertheless with a solitary passenger stolidly waiting.

• (cessation: temporary): hiatus, moratorium, recess; see also Thesaurus:pause
• (cessation: permanent): close, endpoint, terminus; see also Thesaurus:finish

From Middle English halt, from Old English healt, from Proto-West Germanic *halt, from Proto-Germanic *haltaz (“halt, lame”), from Proto-Indo-European *kol-d-, from Proto-Indo-European *kel- (“to beat, strike, cut, slash”). Cognate with Danish halt, Swedish halt.

halt (comparative more halt, superlative most halt)

1. (archaic) Lame, limping.
   • 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Mark:

     It is better for the to goo halt into lyfe, then with ij. fete to be cast into hell […]

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 14:21:

     Bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

halt (plural halts)

1. (dated) Lameness; a limp.

Borrowed from French halte.

halt (plural halts)

1. (British, Ireland) A small railroad station, usually unstaffed or with very few staff, and with few or no facilities.
   • 2024 June 10, Wikipedia contributors, “Train station”, in English Wikipedia‎^[1], Wikimedia Foundation:

     Halts were normally unstaffed, tickets being sold on the train.

• haltkeeper

• thal, lath, Thal

From Middle High German halt. Cognate with German halt (adverb).

• IPA^(key): /halt/

halt

1. so, just, simply
   • 1978, Rolf Lyssy & Christa Maerker, Die Schweizermacher, (transcript):

     Chömmer halt e chli früner. Schadet a nüt.

     So we'll arrive a little earlier. Won't do any harm.

• IPA^(key): [ˈɦalt]

halt

1. alternative form of holt

From Old Norse haltr

halt

1. lame

Borrowed from German halt. Doublet of houd, imperative of houden.

• IPA^(key): /ɦɑlt/

• Audio:

  (file)

halt

1. stop! freeze!

halt n (uncountable, no diminutive)

1. halt, pause, cessation

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “halt”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

From Middle High German halt, from Old High German halt, pertaining to Old High German halto (“soon, fast”). Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haldiz, according to Duden, ultimately related to *halþaz (“inclined, sloping”).^[1] Compare German halt.

halt

1. (Erzgebirgisch) so, just, simply

   Sis halt su.

   It's just like that.

• Hendrik Heidler (11 June 2020), Hendrik Heidler's 400 Seiten: Echtes Erzgebirgisch: Wuu de Hasen Hoosn haaßn un de Hosen Huusn do sei mir drhamm: Das Original Wörterbuch: Ratgeber und Fundgrube der erzgebirgischen Mund- und Lebensart: Erzgebirgisch – Deutsch / Deutsch – Erzgebirgisch‎^[2] (in German), 3. geänderte Auflage edition, Norderstedt: BoD – Books on Demand, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 57

• IPA^(key): /halt/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

From the verb halten (“to hold; to stop”).

halt

1. singular imperative of halten

halt!

1. stop!, wait!

• → Dutch: halt
• → Italian: alt
• → Spanish: alto
• → Portuguese: alto
• → Swedish: halt
• → Middle French: halt
  • French: halte
    • → Dutch: halte
    • → Greek: αλτ (alt)
  • → English: halt

From Middle High German halt, pertaining to Old High German halto (“soon, fast”). Ultimately from Proto-Germanic *haldiz (related to *halþaz (“inclined”)), an adverbial comparative like *batiz.

halt

1. (colloquial, modal particle) Indicating that something is generally known, or cannot be changed, or the like; often untranslatable; so, just, simply, indeed, well

   Synonym: eben

   Er ist halt ein Idiot. ― Well, he’s an idiot.

   Dann müssen wir halt härter arbeiten.

   Then we’ll just have to work harder.

• The word is originally southern German and is still considered so by some contemporary dictionaries. It has, however, become common throughout the language area during the past decades.

• → Czech: holt

• ja

• “halt” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache

hal (“to die”) +‎ -t (past-tense and past-participle suffix)

• IPA^(key): [ˈhɒlt]
• Hyphenation: halt
• Rhymes: -ɒlt

halt

1. third-person singular indicative past indefinite of hal

This form normally occurs when a verbal prefix is separated from the verb:

• halt (…) meg, meg … halt ― meghalt ― meghal
• and some more, see its derivatives with verbal prefixes.

halt

1. past participle of hal

• IPA^(key): [hal̪ˠt̪ˠ]

halt m

1. h-prothesized form of alt

• hallt (Ormulum)
• alte (Late Middle English)

Inherited from Old English healt, form Proto-West Germanic *halt, from Proto-Germanic *haltaz (“crooked”).

• IPA^(key): /halt/

halt (plural and weak singular halte)

1. Limping, lame, crippled.
2. (figuratively) Faulty, shoddy, poor.

• halten

• English: halt (archaic)
• Middle Scots: halt

• “halt, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

From Old Norse haltr, from Proto-Germanic *haltaz.

• Homophones: hallt, halvt

halt (indefinite singular halt, definite singular and plural halte, comparative haltare, indefinite superlative haltast, definite superlative haltaste)

1. limp, limping

halt

1. imperative of halta

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

halt (definite singular and plural halte)

1. past participle of hala

halt

1. supine of hala

• “halt” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From a conflation of Frankish *hauh, *hōh (“high, tall, elevated”) and Latin altus (“high, raised, profound”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈhalt/

halt m (oblique and nominative feminine singular halte)

1. high; elevated

halt

1. loud; loudly

• haltement

• Middle French: hault
  • French: haut

halt

1. strong neuter nominative/accusative singular of haltr

halt

1. second-person singular imperative active of halda

From German Halt

• Audio:

  (file)

halt c

1. content, level (relative amount of something, in a mixture or the like)

   alkoholhalt

   alcohol content

   fetthalt

   fat content

   sanningshalt

   veracity ("truth content")

   en hög halt av alkohol i blodet

   a high concentration of alcohol in the blood

2. stopping (during a march, or more generally)

   Hären gjorde halt

   The army stopped ("made halt")

• -haltig

halt

1. halt! (stop!) (during a march, or more generally)

halt (not comparable)

1. having a limp, lame, halt

• halta

halt

1. indefinite neuter singular of hal

• halt in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• halt in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• halt in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)