stop short

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

1. To come to a sudden and unexpected stop, particularly while speaking or driving a vehicle.
   • 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:

     He had only taken a step forward into the room when he again stopped short to exclaim.

2. (usually with of) To voluntarily cease an attempt to reach a certain point.

   Synonym: hold back

   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, chapter III, in Nobody, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, published 1915, →OCLC:

     Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

   • 2022 December 15, Jack Royston, “Prince Harry throws more accusations at Prince William than ever before”, in Newsweek‎:

     He stopped short of saying the story was true but accused the palace of lying when they "squashed" it.

3. (with of) To come to a stop before reaching a certain point.
   • 2020 December 30, Tim Dunn, “The railway's mechanical marvels”, in Rail, page 58, photo caption:

     Thirteen people were injured in August 1957 when this Bristol freighter skidded on the runway at Southend Airport when landing with a flight from Calais. It ploughed through the boundary fence, but thankfully stopped short of the railway and the 1,500V overhead wires. A tripwire was installed on this section of Shenfield-Southend line to warn train drivers of instances such as this.

• short stop

• “to stop short of”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “stop short”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “stop short of”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

• short stop, shortstop