Stopings

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The process or result of ceasing movement or action ; the act of blocking or closing an opening ; miners' efforts to extract ore from a working face
2. The act of bringing to a halt or interruption ; material placed to block or seal an entrance ; mining operations involving removal of ore from a stope area
3. The instance of ending progress or activity ; the method of sealing a passage to prevent flow ; extraction work in underground mining where ore is taken from a stope zone

Etymology: "Stopings" is the plural of "stoping," a noun for the act of halting, though its real home is in mining. The word derives from "stope," a mining term for a step-like excavation or working in a vein of ore, with the suffix "-ing" added to turn it into a noun for the process of cutting such workings. Miners removed ore in stages, carving out a space and then working it, so the name for the excavation became the name for the activity itself. The plural "stopings" simply refers to several such workings or instances of the process. Because "stope" and "stop" look and sound alike, the mining term is easy to confuse with the everyday verb meaning to halt, but the two are unrelated in origin.

Synonyms: excavations, workings, tunnelings