stop short

verb stops short · stopping short · stopped short

1. To come to a sudden and unexpected stop, particularly while speaking or driving a vehicle. He had only taken a step forward into the room when he again stopped short to exclaim.
2. usually, with of To voluntarily cease an attempt to reach a certain point. Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp o

   Similar: hold back

3. with of To come to a stop before reaching a certain point. Thirteen people were injured in August 1957 when this Bristol freighter skidded on the runway at Southend Airport when landing with a flight from Calais. It ploughed through the boundary fence, but thankfully stopped short of the railway and the 1,500V overhead wires. A tripwire was installed on thi