to grind to a halt
10
5.8
- phrasal verb
- /ɡraɪnd tə ə hɔlt/
:
detenerse
- The production ground to a halt.
So when there is no money, all of that grinds to a halt, for example, right?
- So when there is no money, all of that grinds to a halt, for example, right?
- With this war slowly grinding to a halt.
- You can hear the year starting to grind to a halt.
- How great was the last year when all the shipping and everything ground to a halt?
- In any case, the Red Army's offensive grinds to a halt.
- So with this moral panic about psychedelics, the research gradually grinds to a halt.
- And when those shut down, everything just went ground to a halt.
Examples
-
Rush hour in downtown Seattle has ground to a halt today as striking bus drivers take to the streets to make their voices heard.
-
The war had all but ground to a halt in the blink of an eye.
-
I was beginning to think the wheels of justice had ground to a halt.
-
Traffic has ground to a halt as people try to flee to safety.
-
Finally, I ground to a halt, and we sat there in silence.
Fiction book (1998) -
Every year, commercial activity grinds to a halt for this event in each principal town.
Academic text (1991) -
Will the process of integration continue, or will it grind to a halt?
Academic text (2007) -
The system ground to a halt with FOIA staff sinking in a sea of paperwork.
-
The production lines ground to a halt for hours while technicians tried to debug the software.
Academic text (1996) -
Traffic has grinded to a halt due to the heavy snow and icy roads.
Synonyms
206
2.4
To stop moving or make something stop moving
180
2.2
To be unable to move or continue because something blocks you
13
3.4
Stop moving or working completely
5
5.8
To get stuck and stop making progress
Antonyms
How Fast
Surface Forms
Morphology
The element 'to a halt' clearly signals stopping and 'grind' evokes slow, laborious motion, so the combined meaning 'slowly come to a stop' is partly derivable from the parts. However, the use of 'grind' in this metaphorical, gradual sense requires a semantic extension that may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Grind to a halt comes from the image of heavy machines or millstones that make a rough, grind noise as they slow and then finally halt when something blocks them. So, when something 'grinds to a halt' today, it means 'slowly stops moving or working'.