Stall

How to spell stall

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stall

What does stall mean?

1. nounA booth, stand, or compartment, such as a market trader's stand or a space for a single animal.
2. verbOf an engine or vehicle, to stop running suddenly and unintentionally.
3. verbTo deliberately delay or hold something up to gain time.

Stall in a sentence

• noun

  The cheese stall at the farmers' market was busy all morning.

• verb

  Learner drivers often stall the car at busy junctions.

• verb

  She tried to stall the meeting until her colleague arrived.

• noun

  Each horse has its own stall in the renovated barn.

• verb

  The old tractor tends to stall when the fuel runs low.

• verb

  The suspect kept trying to stall for time during the interview.

Where does stall come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Stall comes from the Old English word steall, which meant a standing place, a position, or a stable for animals, and it traces back to a Germanic root tied to the idea of standing still. That same standing sense links it to the German word Stall, still used today for a stable or barn, and to the verb 'to stand' itself. Over the centuries the noun broadened from an animal's stable compartment to a fixed booth or stand where goods are sold, the kind you see at a market. The verb developed later from the idea of being brought to a standstill, which is why a car engine that loses power is said to stall and why a person who deliberately holds things up is said to stall for time. The single L doubles in this short word simply because of the long vowel before it, the same pattern seen in 'tall', 'wall', and 'call'.

How the word is built

• stall (from Old English steall: a standing place, stable)