short-stop

shortstop

short-stop (third-person singular simple present short-stops, present participle short-stopping, simple past and past participle short-stopped)

1. To stop (a process, trip, trajectory, etc.} before it complete; to cause to stop short.
   • 1967, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Report to Stockholders, page 7:

     the check which we mentioned earlier as a prime example of present-day around-the-barn movement in the payments stream, might conceivably be short-stopped at a regional clearing center located in Maine.

   • 1983, Sue Hoover, Help Wanted: The First Guide to High-tech Jobs, page 14:

     Davis says Florida often gets "short-stopped” when an airline carrying a company site selector from California stops in Houston or Dallas or Austin.

   • 1991, Mediaweek - Volume 1, page 14:

     He went to the hospital, where they short-stopped a heart attack, perhaps by minutes.

   • 1991, Robert D. Athey, Emulsion Polymer Technology, page 80:

     Nitrile rubbers, if they are to be used as dissolving resins, must be short-stopped at about 60 % conversion; otherwise an insoluble gel forms within the resin.

   • 2003, R.J. Nelson, Naming and Reference: The Link of Word to Object:

     Either the intentionality of reference is accepted as a datum or it has to be explained. Folkism short-stops the question, both ways.

2. (baseball) To play the position of shortstop.
   • 1886, California Occident - Volumes 11-12, page 88:

     In The Spirit of the Times, the most reliable sporting paper of the Coast, we find the following encouraging criticism on our baseball nine: " Koshland (a tower of strength to this league) short topped and ran bases as brilliantly as the best of professionals."

   • 1909, The Phi Gamma Delta - Volume 32, page 742:

     Baird, '12, has been catching, short-stopping, second-basing and left-fielding with varying good nature, but impartial ability and with commendable attention to such trifling details as hitting and base running, matters apparently beneath the notice of most of the team.

   • 1979, Mark Harris, Short Work of it: Selected Writing, page 4:

     I have never known her to follow with any degree of avidity the fortunes of the Kansas City Monarchs, for whom Robinson short-stopped last season.

short-stop m (plural short-stops)

1. Alternative spelling of shortstop

• “short-stop”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.