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

Example Sentences

Harris has to “secure the blue wall, hard stop,” Belcher said, and will definitely be paying attention to — and spending time in — Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

From Los Angeles Times

Once a jury is selected, even a ridiculous order can bring a prosecution to a hard stop because the Constitution’s double jeopardy clause precludes retrial.

From Seattle Times

The caucuses convene without a hard stop time.

From Seattle Times

But it doesn’t own the entire block; instead, it makes a hard stop three-quarters of the way down, where the modern gives way to the Old World aesthetic of a storefront built along the lines of a traditional Japanese building, its gracefully organic arches of black wooden beams contrasting with the bookstore’s somewhat brutalist concrete iceberg.

From Seattle Times

“An attack would essentially put a hard stop on all that, with no guidance on alternate entry points,” the aid worker said, adding that most entities organized their supply chains from Egypt, but those coming in from Jordan would also be affected.

From Los Angeles Times