STANDSTILL

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does standstill mean? 

• STANDSTILL (noun)
  The noun STANDSTILL has 2 senses:

1. a situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible

2. an interruption of normal activity

  Familiarity information: STANDSTILL used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STANDSTILL (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A situation in which no progress can be made or no advancement is possible

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

dead end; deadlock; impasse; stalemate; standstill

Context example:

reached an impasse on the negotiations

Hypernyms ("standstill" is a kind of...):

situation (a complex or critical or unusual difficulty)

Derivation:

stand still (remain in place; hold still; remain fixed or immobile)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An interruption of normal activity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

stand; standstill; tie-up

Hypernyms ("standstill" is a kind of...):

halt; stop (the event of something ending)

 Context examples 

And here a fresh alarm brought me to a standstill with a thumping heart.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

In the end they come to a standstill. They move no more. They are dead.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

We were at a standstill again.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

It was a quarter-past seven when we left Pall Mall, and my watch showed me that it was ten minutes to nine when we at last came to a standstill.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sudden cessation of the pumping function of the heart, with disappearance of arterial blood pressure, connoting either ventricular fibrillation or ventricular standstill.

(Cardiac Arrest, Food and Drug Administration)

They were piling up their score all the time and we were at a standstill.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

O’Brien contended it was Thornton’s privilege to knock the runners loose, leaving Buck to “break it out” from a dead standstill.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

But when the butt of the topmast was level with the rail, everything came to a standstill.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

But a singular interruption brought us to a standstill.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)