halts

1. 1
   verbobsolete

   Third-person singular simple present of halt.

   The conductor halts the train whenever a passenger pulls the emergency cord.

   She halts at the threshold, unsure whether to step inside.

   Note

   The verb behind this present-tense form once meant more than stopping. In older English, a person who halts limps, or stands in doubt about what to do next. A line of verse halts when its meter is faulty. Those senses are now obsolete, so today halts reports a stop, whether of a march or a train, rather than a stumble or a hesitation.

2. 2
   nounobsolete

   Plural of halt.

   The journey was broken by several unexpected halts along the way.

   Brief halts at each checkpoint slowed the convoy considerably.

   Note

   Two quite different nouns share this plural. Stops and pauses are the everyday halts. On British and Irish railways, halts are also small stations, usually unstaffed and with few or no facilities. The acronym HALT (hungry, angry, lonely, tired) is uncountable, so it never takes this ending. The old noun meaning a limp is dated and rarely needs a plural at all.

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