Finish vs. Stop — What's the Difference?

To stop (doing an activity or task) after reaching the point at which there is nothing left to do

(of an event, action, or process) come to an end; cease to happen

To bring to a required or desired state

Cause (an action, process, or event) to come to an end

To arrive at or attain the end of

Block or close up (a hole or leak)

(Sports) To perform the last maneuver in (an offensive play), scoring a goal.

Be or behave in a particular way

To consume all of; use up

A cessation of movement or operation

To give (wood, for example) a desired or particular surface texture.

A set of organ pipes of a particular tone and range of pitch.

To destroy; kill

The effective diameter of a lens.

To bring about the ruin of

To close (an opening or hole) by covering, filling in, or plugging up

To come to an end; stop

To constrict (an opening or orifice)

To reach the end of a task, course, or relationship

To obstruct or block passage on (a road, for example).

(Sports) To score a goal as the last maneuver in a play

To prevent the flow or passage of

The final part; the conclusion

To halt the motion or progress of

The reason for one's ruin; downfall

To block or deflect (a blow, for example); parry or ward off.

The last treatment or coating of a surface

To be or get in the way of (a bullet or other missile); be killed or wounded by.

The surface texture produced by such a treatment or coating.

To cause to desist or to change a course of action

A material used in surfacing or finishing.

To prevent or restrain

Completeness, refinement, or smoothness of execution; polish.

To discontinue or cease

The flavor left in the mouth after wine has been swallowed.

To defeat (an opponent or opposing team).

An end; the end of anything.

To defeat in boxing by a knockout or technical knockout.

A protective coating given to wood or metal and other surfaces.

To order a bank to withhold payment of

The result of any process changing the physical or chemical properties of cloth.

To press down (a string on a stringed instrument) on the fingerboard to produce a desired pitch.

A finishing touch; careful elaboration; polish.

To close (a hole on a wind instrument) with the finger in sounding a desired pitch.

(sports) A shot on goal, especially one that ends in a goal.

To cease moving, progressing, acting, or operating; come to a halt

(transitive) To complete (something).

To put an end to what one is doing; cease

(transitive) To apply a treatment to a surface or similar.

To interrupt one's course or journey for a brief visit or stay. Often used with by, in, or off

(transitive) To change an animal's food supply in the months before it is due for slaughter, with the intention of fattening the animal.

The act of stopping or the condition of being stopped

(intransitive) To come to an end.

A halt or stay, as on a trip

(transitive) To put an end to; to destroy.

A place at which someone or something stops

To reach orgasm.

A device or means that obstructs, blocks, or plugs up.

To arrive at the end of; to bring to an end; to put an end to; to make an end of; to terminate.

An order given to a bank to withhold payment on a check.

To bestow the last required labor upon; to complete; to bestow the utmost possible labor upon; to perfect; to accomplish; to polish.

A stop order.

To come to an end; to terminate.

A part in a mechanism that stops or regulates movement.

To end; to die.

The effective aperture of a lens, controlled by a diaphragm.

That which finishes, puts an end to or perfects.

A mark of punctuation, especially a period.

The joiner work and other finer work required for the completion of a building, especially of the interior. See Inside finish, and Outside finish.

The act of stopping a string or hole on an instrument.

The labor required to give final completion to any work; hence, minute detail, careful elaboration, or the like.

A fret on a stringed instrument.

The result of completed labor, as on the surface of an object; manner or style of finishing; as, a rough, dead, or glossy finish given to cloth, stone, metal, etc.

A hole on a wind instrument.

Completion; - opposed to start, or beginning.

A device such as a key for closing the hole on a wind instrument.

A decorative texture or appearance of a surface (or the substance that gives it that appearance);

A tuned set of pipes, as in an organ.

Designated event that concludes a contest (especially a race);

A knob, key, or pull that regulates such a set of pipes.

The act of finishing;

(Nautical) A line used for securing something temporarily

The place designated as the end (as of a race or journey);

(Linguistics) One of a set of speech sounds that is a plosive or a nasal.

The temporal end; the concluding time;

A plosive.

(wine tasting) the taste of a wine on the back of the tongue (as it is swallowed);

The depression between the muzzle and top of the skull of an animal, especially a dog.

Event whose occurrence ends something;

(Sports) A save made by a goalie.

The downfall of someone (as of persons on one side of a conflict);

(Games) A stopper.

A highly developed state of perfection; having a flawless or impeccable quality;

(Architecture) A projecting stone, often carved, at the end of a molding.

Come or bring to a finish or an end;

A control mechanism on an audio or video player that causes a recording to stop playing.

Finally be or do something;

Of, relating to, or being of use at the end of an operation or activity

Have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical;

(intransitive) To cease moving.

Provide with a finish;

(intransitive) Not to continue.

Finish eating all the food on one's plate or on the table;

(transitive) To cause (something) to cease moving or progressing.

Cause to finish a relationship with somebody;

(transitive) To cease; to no longer continue (doing something).

(transitive) To cause (something) to come to an end.

(transitive) To close or block an opening.

To adjust the aperture of a camera lens.

(intransitive) To stay; to spend a short time; to reside or tarry temporarily.

(music) To regulate the sounds of (musical strings, etc.) by pressing them against the fingerboard with the finger, or otherwise shortening the vibrating part.

(obsolete) To punctuate.

(nautical) To make fast; to stopper.

To pronounce (a phoneme) as a stop.

To delay the purchase or sale of (a stock) while agreeing the price for later.

A (usually marked) place where buses, trams or trains halt to let passengers get on and off, usually smaller than a station.

An action of stopping; interruption of travel.

That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; an obstacle; an impediment.

A device intended to block the path of a moving object

(engineering) A device, or piece, as a pin, block, pawl, etc., for arresting or limiting motion, or for determining the position to which another part shall be brought.

(architecture) A member, plain or moulded, formed of a separate piece and fixed to a jamb, against which a door or window shuts.

(linguistics) A consonant sound in which the passage of air through the mouth is temporarily blocked by the lips, tongue, or glottis.

A symbol used for purposes of punctuation and representing a pause or separating clauses, particularly a full stop, comma, colon or semicolon.

(music) A knob or pin used to regulate the flow of air in an organ.

(music) One of the vent-holes in a wind instrument, or the place on the wire of a stringed instrument, by the stopping or pressing of which certain notes are produced.

(tennis) A very short shot which touches the ground close behind the net and is intended to bounce as little as possible.

(football) A save; preventing the opposition from scoring a goal

(zoology) The depression in a dog’s face between the skull and the nasal bones.

(photography) A part of a photographic system that reduces the amount of light.

(photography) A unit of exposure corresponding to a doubling of the brightness of an image.

(photography) An f-stop.

The diaphragm used in optical instruments to cut off the marginal portions of a beam of light passing through lenses.

(fencing) A coup d'arret, or stop thrust.

A small well-bucket; a milk-pail.

(physics) The squark that is the superpartner of a top quark.

To close, as an aperture, by filling or by obstructing; as, to stop the ears; hence, to stanch, as a wound.

To obstruct; to render impassable; as, to stop a way, road, or passage.

To arrest the progress of; to hinder; to impede; to shut in; as, to stop a traveler; to stop the course of a stream, or a flow of blood.

To hinder from acting or moving; to prevent the effect or efficiency of; to cause to cease; to repress; to restrain; to suppress; to interrupt; to suspend; as, to stop the execution of a decree, the progress of vice, the approaches of old age or infirmity.

To regulate the sounds of, as musical strings, by pressing them against the finger board with the finger, or by shortening in any way the vibrating part.

To point, as a composition; to punctuate.

To make fast; to stopper.

To cease to go on; to halt, or stand still; to come to a stop.

To cease from any motion, or course of action.

To spend a short time; to reside temporarily; to stay; to tarry; as, to stop with a friend.

The act of stopping, or the state of being stopped; hindrance of progress or of action; cessation; repression; interruption; check; obstruction.

That which stops, impedes, or obstructs; as obstacle; an impediment; an obstruction.

A device, or piece, as a pin, block, pawl, etc., for arresting or limiting motion, or for determining the position to which another part shall be brought.

The closing of an aperture in the air passage, or pressure of the finger upon the string, of an instrument of music, so as to modify the tone; hence, any contrivance by which the sounds of a musical instrument are regulated.

In the organ, one of the knobs or handles at each side of the organist, by which he can draw on or shut off any register or row of pipes; the register itself; as, the vox humana stop.

A member, plain or molded, formed of a separate piece and fixed to a jamb, against which a door or window shuts. This takes the place, or answers the purpose, of a rebate. Also, a pin or block to prevent a drawer from sliding too far.

A point or mark in writing or printing intended to distinguish the sentences, parts of a sentence, or clauses; a mark of punctuation. See Punctuation.

The diaphragm used in optical instruments to cut off the marginal portions of a beam of light passing through lenses.

The depression in the face of a dog between the skull and the nasal bones. It is conspicuous in the bulldog, pug, and some other breeds.

Some part of the articulating organs, as the lips, or the tongue and palate, closed (a) so as to cut off the passage of breath or voice through the mouth and the nose (distinguished as a lip-stop, or a front-stop, etc., as in p, t, d, etc.), or (b) so as to obstruct, but not entirely cut off, the passage, as in l, n, etc.; also, any of the consonants so formed.

The event of something ending;

The act of stopping something;

A brief stay in the course of a journey;

The state of inactivity following an interruption;

A spot where something halts or pauses;

A consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it;

A punctuation mark (.) placed at the end of a declarative sentence to indicate a full stop or after abbreviations;

(music) a knob on an organ that is pulled to change the sound quality from the organ pipes;

A mechanical device in a camera that controls size of aperture of the lens;

A restraint that checks the motion of something;

An obstruction in a pipe or tube;

Come to a halt, stop moving;

Put an end to a state or an activity;

Stop from happening or developing;

Interrupt a trip;

Cause to stop;

Prevent completion;

Hold back, as of a danger or an enemy; check the expansion or influence of;

Seize on its way;

Have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical;

Render unsuitable for passage;

Stop and wait, as if awaiting further instructions or developments;