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stopper

UK/ˈstɒp.ə/US/ˈstɑ.pɚ/
nounB1+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,572 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: stoppers

A stopper is a plug pushed into the neck of a bottle to close it. A glass stopper, pull the stopper out, a rubber stopper.

It seals by friction alone, which is why a glass one in an old decanter can seize and why warming the neck frees it. In cricket and football, a stopper is a defensive player, and in general use a show-stopper is something that halts everything.

Wikimedia Commons user TheBernFiles. · Public domain

Definitions of stopper

  1. 1nounstopperA plug pushed into the neck of a bottle to close it.B1+

    “He pushed the glass stopper back into the bottle of perfume.”

    • Said"Put the stopper back in the bottle or it'll go flat by morning."
    • WrittenGlass stoppers gleamed in the necks of the decanters along the sideboard.
    • UsedRinse the stopper before you push it back in.
    • ContrastA stopper, not a lid. A lid sits on top of an opening; a stopper is pushed down into it. lid →
    • Not thisA screw cap is not a stopper. A stopper is pushed in and pulled out.
    • SimplyTake out the stopper. Now the water comes.

    Patterna glass / rubber / cork stopper · put the stopper in / take the stopper out · bottle stopper

stopper is a plug.

Remember it

STOPper → it STOPs the bottle

It is stop + er: the plug that stops the wine running out of the bottle.

hooks ontostop

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *(s)tewp-

  2. Middle English

    stoppen

  3. English

    stop

  4. English, today

    stopper

Built from

  • *stuppijaną · Proto-Germanic — to push, pierce, prick
  • *(s)tewb- · Proto-Indo-European — to push; stick
  • *(s)tew- · Proto-Indo-European — to bump; impact; butt; push; beat; strike; hit

From stop + -er. stop comes from Middle English stoppen. From Middle English stoppen, stoppien, from Old English stoppian (“to stop, close”), from Proto-West Germanic stoppōn, from Proto-Germanic stuppōną (“to stop, close”), stuppijaną (“to push, pierce, prick”), from Proto-Indo-European (s)tewp-, (s)tewb- (“to push; stick”), from (s)tew- (“to bump; impact; butt; push; beat; strike; hit”). Cognate with stq stopje (“to stop, block”), West Frisian stopje (“to stop”), Dutch stoppen (“to stop”), Low German stoppen (“to stop”), German stopfen (“to be filling, stuff”), German stoppen (“to stop”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål stoppe (“to stop”), Icelandic, Norwegian Nynorsk and Swedish stoppa (“to stop”), Middle High German stupfen, stüpfen (“to pierce”). More at stuff, stump.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in In the Kitchen

Practise this word

stopper in the wild

  • The overhand knot is a stopper, especially when used alone, and hence it is very secure, to the point of jamming badly.

    Overhand knot

  • The figure-eight knot or figure-of-eight knot is a type of stopper knot.

    Figure-eight knot

  • The slip knot is a stopper knot which is easily undone by pulling the tail (working end).

    Slip knot

  • The slip knot is a stopper knot that may be spilled or slipped instantly by pulling on the end to withdraw a loop.

    Slip knot

  • The single-strand stopper knot is... of knob knots.

    Stopper knot

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • stop
  • nonstop