hard stop

[ hahrd stop ]

noun

1. a complete, often abrupt stop:

   An average garbage truck does about a thousand stops a day—and they're hard stops, triggering the ABS.

   Whenever I make a hard stop on the court in these shoes, I come close to rolling an ankle.

2. a definite, firm, usually immediate end to something:

   Oil industry leaders pressed for more action on pipelines and a hard stop to renewable energy tax credits.

3. a nonnegotiable time at which someone must end an activity because of another engagement:

   I know some of you have a hard stop at 4:00 for another meeting, so I will keep my remarks brief.

4. a mechanism or machine part that causes the movement of another part, or of the whole machine, to stop completely and abruptly:

   When you press the lever you should feel it bottom out against a hard stop, leaving it at a right angle to the hub axle.

5. Stock Exchange. a selected stock price point programmed by a trader to generate an automatic order to sell or to close a trade, as opposed to the trader making this decision on the spot:

   I always use a hard stop, because otherwise a fast market can result in a much larger loss than planned.

6. the act, by armed law enforcement officers, of compelling the driver of a vehicle containing suspects to stop:

   When his taxi was subjected to a hard stop by armed officers, he jumped out to discard a gun.

7. Computers. a forced shutdown, as by turning off the power:

   If you hold the power button down for 10 seconds, you'll get a hard stop, but don't do it unless the computer won't turn off otherwise.

Word History and Origins

Origin of hard stop¹

First recorded in 1885–90; 2000–05 hard stop fordef 7