• IPA: /hɔːlt/
• (cot-caught) IPA: /hɑlt/

halt (halts, present participle halting; past and past participle halted)

1. (intransitive) To limp; move with a limping gait.
   • c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or VVhat You VVill”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [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, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 4 scene 1

     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.
   • Bible, 1 Kings xviii. 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.

halt (halts, present participle halting; past and past participle halted)

1. (intransitive) To stop marching.
2. (intransitive) To stop either temporarily or permanently.
   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326 ↗:

     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
• German: anhalten, stoppen, rasten
• Italian: fermare
• Portuguese: estagnar
• Spanish: parar

• 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.

   • 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

halt

1. (archaic) Lame, limping.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Mark IX:

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

   • Bible, Luke xiv. 21

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

halt (plural halts)

1. (dated) Lameness; a limp.