stope

See also: stopě, stopę, and støpe

English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [stoʊp]

Etymology 1

Apparently related to step, but with uncertain phonological development. Perhaps from a German Low German word like Stoop (step), from Middle Low German stōpe (step). More at stoop.

Noun

stope (plural stopes)

  1. A mining excavation in the form of a terrace of steps.
    • 2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 318:
      The other smell [] that worked its way into your clothes, your skin, your spirit, believed here to rise by way of long-deserted drifts and stopes, from the everyday atmosphere of Hell itself.
Derived terms
  • stope assay plan
  • stope board
  • stope fillings
  • stope hoist
  • stope pillar

Verb

stope (third-person singular simple present stopes, present participle stoping, simple past and past participle stoped)

  1. (mining) To excavate in the form of stopes.
  2. (mining) To fill in with rubbish, as a space from which the ore has been worked out.

Etymology 2

Verb

stope

  1. (obsolete) simple past of step

Anagrams

Friulian

Etymology

From Latin stuppa, from Ancient Greek στύππη (stúppē).

Noun

stope f (plural stope)

  1. tow
  2. oakum

Norwegian Nynorsk

Verb

stope

  1. past participle of stupa

Old English

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈstoː.pe/

Verb

stōpe

  1. inflection of stæppan:
    1. second-person singular preterite indicative
    2. singular preterite subjunctive

Serbo-Croatian

Verb

stope (Cyrillic spelling стопе)

  1. third-person plural present of stopiti