• (British) IPA: /hɒlt/
  • (Conservative RP) IPA: /hɔːlt/
• (America) IPA: /hɔlt/
  • (cot-caught) IPA: /hɑlt/

From Middle English halten, from Old English healtian, from Proto-Germanic *haltōną, related to *haltaz.

halt (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, imperative of halten ("to hold, to stop").

halt (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)
• (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

• French: faire halte, suspendre
• German: anhalten, stoppen, rasten
• Italian: accantonare, fermare, riporre
• Portuguese: estagnar
• Russian: класть на полку
• Spanish: cajonear, dar carpetazo, engavetar, parar

• French: arrêter, halter, stopper
• German: anhalten, stoppen, stocken
• Italian: fermare
• Russian: остана́вливать
• Spanish: parar

• German: anhalten, stoppen, stocken, zögern

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 Theater, published 1707, →OCLC ↗:

     Without any halt they marched.

2. (rail) 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.

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

• German: Halt, Blockierung, Pause

• French: halte
• German: Halteplatz, Haltestelle
• Portuguese: apeadeiro
• Russian: полустанок
• Spanish: apeadero

From Middle English halt, from Old English healt, from Proto-West Germanic *halt, from Proto-Germanic *haltaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kol-d-, from Proto-Indo-European *kel-.

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. (Britain, Ireland) A small railroad station, usually unstaffed or with very few staff, and with few or no facilities.

halt (uncountable)

1. Acronym of hungry, angry, lonely, (or) tired