standstill

See also: stand still

English

Etymology

From stand +‎ still, a deverbal from stand still. Compare Dutch stilstand (“a standstill”), German Stillstand (“a standstill”), Danish stilstand (“a standstill”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American, Canada, Australia) IPA^(key): /ˈstændˌstɪl/
• (æ-raising, US, Canada) IPA^(key): [ˈstɛən(d)ˌstɪɫ]

  • Audio (Austin, Texas):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪl

Noun

standstill (countable and uncountable, plural standstills)

1. A complete immobility; a halt.

   Synonyms: deadlock, dead stand, grind, halt, idle, stalemate, stand, impasse

   Antonyms: motion, movement

   The wreck brought traffic to a standstill for hours.

   • 1955 December, H. A. Vallance, “The Highland Centenary—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 859:

     Despite all these precautions, however, severe storms sometimes caused drifts which brought traffic completely to a standstill.

   • 1960 March, “Motive Power Miscellany: Western Region”, in Trains Illustrated, page 184:

     [...] but in the damp conditions prevailing the driver sensibly was unwilling to attempt the climb up through Combe Down tunnel without help, for fear of slipping to a standstill in the unventilated bore, [...].

   • 2012, James C. Spohrer, Louis E. Freund, Advances in the Human Side of Service Engineering‎^[1]:

     For the caller the advantage relies on a fast solution of his service request, leading to less standstill and non-productive periods for the service customer.

Derived terms

• standstill agreement

Translations

complete immobility

Azerbaijani: durğunluq Bulgarian: засто́й (bg) m (zastój), безде́йствие (bg) n (bezdéjstvie) Catalan: aturada (ca) f, parada (ca) f Chinese: Mandarin: 停頓 / 停顿 (zh) (tíngdùn) Danish: stilstand m Dutch: stilstand (nl) Esperanto: halto Finnish: pysähtyminen (fi) French: arrêt (fr) m, immobilisation (fr) f, paralysie (fr) f, surplace (fr) m Galician: paralización (gl) f Georgian: უძრაობა (uʒraoba), უმოქმედობა (umokmedoba), გაჩერება (gačereba), შეჩერება (šečereba), შეწყვეტა (šec̣q̇veṭa) German: Stillstand (de) m Hungarian: mozdulatlanság (hu), leállás (hu), megállás (hu), szünetelés (hu), üzemszünet (hu), holtpont (hu), bénultság (hu), nyugalmi állapot/helyzet Interlingua: immobilisation, paralyse Irish: stad (ga) m Italian: fermata (it), blocco (it) m, fermo (it) m, arresto (it) m, punto morto m, stallo (it) m, vicolo cieco m, stasi (it) f, stanca (it) f Japanese: 停止 (ja) (ていし, teishi), 停頓 (ja) (ていとん, teiton) Latin: immobilizatio Macedonian: за́стој m (zástoj), безде́јствие n (bezdéjstvie), бе́здејство n (bézdejstvo) Māori: whakamāraritanga Norwegian: stillstand (no) Plautdietsch: Stellstaunt m Polish: zastój (pl) m Portuguese: paralisação (pt) Romanian: oprit (ro), imobilizat (ro) Russian: остано́вка (ru) f (ostanóvka), засто́й (ru) m (zastój), безде́йствие (ru) n (bezdéjstvije), просто́й (ru) m (prostój) (esp. at work) Spanish: parada (es) f, detención (es) f, detenimiento (es) m Vietnamese: bế tắc (vi), dừng (vi)

Anagrams

• stillstand