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Definition of halt verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

halt

verb
 
/hɔːlt/,
 
/hɒlt/
 
/hɔːlt/
[intransitive, transitive]
Verb Forms
present simple I / you / we / they halt
 
/hɔːlt/,
 
/hɒlt/
 
/hɔːlt/
he / she / it halts
 
/hɔːlts/,
 
/hɒlts/
 
/hɔːlts/
past simple halted
 
/ˈhɔːltɪd/,
 
/ˈhɒltɪd/
 
/ˈhɔːltɪd/
past participle halted
 
/ˈhɔːltɪd/,
 
/ˈhɒltɪd/
 
/ˈhɔːltɪd/
-ing form halting
 
/ˈhɔːltɪŋ/,
 
/ˈhɒltɪŋ/
 
/ˈhɔːltɪŋ/
Idioms
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  1. to stop; to make somebody/something stop
    • She walked towards him and then halted.
    • ‘Halt!’ the Major ordered (= used as a command to soldiers).
    • halt somebody/something The police were halting traffic on the parade route.
    • The trial was halted after the first week.
    Extra Examples
    • A sudden shout made them halt in their tracks and look around.
    • All these ideas for expansion were abruptly halted by the outbreak of war.
    • The strike effectively halted production at the factory.
    • We are failing to halt the destruction of the rainforest.
    • She criticized his failure to halt the slide in the government's unpopularity.
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb
    • virtually
    • effectively
    • abruptly
    verb + halt
    • attempt to
    • try to
    • threaten to
    phrases
    • halt in your tracks
    • halt something in its tracks
    See full entry
    Word Originlate 16th cent.: originally in the phrase make halt, from German haltmachen, from halten ‘to hold’.
Idioms
stop/halt somebody in their tracks | stop/halt/freeze in your tracks
  1. to suddenly make somebody stop by frightening or surprising them; to suddenly stop because something has frightened or surprised you
    • The question stopped Alice in her tracks.
    • Suddenly he stopped dead in his tracks: what was he doing?
    • (figurative) The disease was stopped in its tracks by immunization programmes.
    Topics Feelingsc2
See halt in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee halt in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
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noun
 
 
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