stop cold

Idioms and Phrases

Also, stop dead or in one's tracks or on a dime . Halt suddenly, come to a standstill, as in When a thread breaks, the machine just stops cold , or He was so surprised to see them in the audience that he stopped dead in the middle of his speech , or The deer saw the hunter and stopped in its tracks , or An excellent skateboarder, she could stop on a dime . The first term uses cold in the sense “suddenly and completely,” a usage dating from the late 1800s. The first variant was first recorded in 1789 and probably was derived from the slightly older, and still current, come to a dead stop , with the same meaning. The second variant uses in one's tracks in the sense of “on the spot” or “where one is at the moment”; it was first recorded in 1824. The third variant alludes to the dime or ten-cent piece, the smallest-size coin.

Example Sentences

Whenever it got to the point where anger was going to show, he would stop cold and walk out and leave the conversation in the air.

From Project Gutenberg

He pulled himself up onto a rock ledge, over to the edge, and felt his heart stop cold as he peered down into the valley below.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• abort
• break off
• curtail
• halt
• hinder
• interrupt
• postpone
• quit
• shorten
• terminate