▪ I. stopple, n.1
(ˈstɒp(ə)l)
Forms: 4–6 stopell, 5 stopelle, -ylle, 5–7 stoppell, stople, 6 stoppall, -elle, -ull, 6–9 stoppel, 9 dial. stapple, 6– stopple. Cf. stoupaille, estoppel.
[Partly f. stop v. + -el1, -le: partly aphetic f. estoppel.]
I. 1. a. An appliance for closing the orifice of a vessel, tube, etc.; a stopper, cork, bung, or plug. Now somewhat rare; usually replaced by stopper.
| 139. Earl Derby's Exped. (Camden) 72 Et per manus eiusdem pro j stopell pro j botell. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 477/2 Stoppell, of a bottel or oþer like, ducillus. 1471 Ripley Comp. Alch. iii. vi. in Ashm. (1652) 140 Make thy Stopell of glas. c 1480 Henryson Mor. Fab., Wolf & Fox xix, The fraudfull foxe..with his teith the stoppell, or he stint, Pullit out. 1526 in Gutch Collect. Cur. (1781) II. 325 Item deliveryd the..burnysshing of twoo Flagons and mending the Cheynis and Stoppells. 1600 Surflet Country Farm iii. lxii. 574 Euerie one of the [furnace] mouthes shall haue his stopple. Ibid. v. xxiii. 725 They draw forth the thinnest of the licour.. by a stopple which they haue for the purpose in the bottome of the fat. 1601 Holland Pliny xxxiii. iv. II. 468 No sooner are the stopples driven and shaken out, but the water gusheth foorth amaine. 1613 Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 184 The stopple of a Vessell, if it be of Hempe or Flax, may not be thrust in. 1626 Middleton Wom. beware Wom. iii. iii. 103 Like a cloth-stopple in a cream-pot. 1718 J. Chamberlayne Relig. Philos. (1730) II. xviii. §6 All the Stopples that are used to the Phials..are corroded by the Particles that ascend. 1823 J. Badcock Dom. Amusem. 75 Let a phial be provided, which has a cork-stoppel. 1849 E. B. Eastwick Dry Leaves 44 Among the ornaments..suspended over the tomb were some stopples of decanters. 1865 E. C. Clayton Cruel Fortune II. 289 Mademoiselle Marie took up the phial,..extracted the stopple, sniffed at the contents, then replaced the stopple. |
† b. transf. and fig. Obs.
| 1508 Dunbar Tua Maritt Wemen 339 Than with a stew stert out the stoppell of my hals. 1565 Jewel Repl. Harding (1611) 361 The Councell of Salesgunstadium hath straitly charged, that no Priest presume, to say more than three Masses vpon one day,..which also is a great stopple to M. Hardings Totquot. 1628 in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1659) I. 586 Which might serve for a sufficient stopple for the Doctors mouth, to keep in his Doctrine of Necessity. 1691 Ray Creation ii. (1704) 304 Therefore were there no Shuts or Stopples made for the Ears. |
† c. Mus. The plug of a stopped organ-pipe. Also (see quot. 1801). Obs.
| 1771 Roland Le Virloys Dict. Archit. III. Vocab. 184 Stopple of an organ, biseau d'orgue. 1801 Busby Dict. Mus. (1811), Stopples, certain plugs with which the ancients stopt or opened the holes of a flute..in order to accommodate its scale..to some particular mode. 1876 Stainer & Barrett Dict. Mus. Terms. |
d. = ear-plug (b) s.v. ear n.1 17. U.S.
| a 1961 in Webster, s.v., A stopple must be fitted into the ear canal so that noise does not leak around the edges. 1965 J. M. Cain Magician's Wife (1966) xvi. 121 He must put stopples in his ears to account for his failure to answer, in case his phone had rung. 1977 New Yorker 12 Sept. 161/3 (Advt.), Noise? No problem. Flents Ear Stopples seal it out. |
† 2. A stopping or pad (of wet cotton). Obs.
| 1560 Whitehorne Ord. Souldiours (1588) 39 b, Put in the trumbe a handfull of serpentine pouder vnmixt, next a handfull of the foresaid mixture, after a little pouder, then a stoppell of cotten wet in oyle of gineper. |
† 3. A name for some marine animals. Obs.
| 1713 Petiver Aquat. Anim. Amboinæ Tab. 5/6 Blatta oblonga maxima..Great Oval Horn-stopple. Ibid. 10/3 Uṁbilicus marinus niger..Black Bone stopple. |
4. Comb., as stopple-cork, stopple-maker; † stopple-pear, some variety of pear (? shaped like a stopper).
| a 1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 38 Wrench the *stopple-cork! |
| 1481 Caxton Reynard (Arb.) 16 His fader was Macob the *stoppelmaker. |
| 1664 Evelyn Kal. Hort., Dec. (1679) 30 Pears,..Gascogne-Bergomot, Scarlet-pear, *Stopple-pear. |
† II. 5. The action of stopping; a stoppage, prohibition. (Cf. estoppel 2, 2 b.) Obs.
| 1578 Sir F. Knollys in MS. Rawl. D. 23 lf. 19 b, To stoppe hir Maiesties owne marchantes from theyre free vente at Hanborroe, hoping that by the stoppall thereof, they shall [etc.]. 1598 Marston Sco. Villanie ii. vii. 205 Their only skill rests in Collusions, Abatements, stoppels, inhibitions. 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 314 Neither Matchiuel, nor any that euer yet was in Europe [come] neere vnto the Iesuits for Atheall deuises to preuent the stoppels of their stratagems. 1651 J. S. Prince of Priggs Revels iii. 10 He'l soon recover all by his collusions, Abatements, stoppels, inhibitions. |
▪ II. ˈstopple, n.2 Sc. and north.
Also 7 stople, 9 stapple.
The stem of a tobacco-pipe. (See pipe-stapple.)
| 1681 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 55 Some have their faces and their throples All scratched with tobacco stoples. a 1730 T. Boston in Morrison Mem. (1899) 6 He..broke in pieces a part of a tobacco-pipe..; bidding the devil beat him as small as that pipe-stopple, if [etc.]. 1898 Shetland News 5 Feb. (E.D.D.), He..ramm'd da strae twartree times introw da stapple o' his pipe. |
▪ III. stopple, v.
(ˈstɒp(ə)l)
[f. stopple n.1]
trans. To put a stopple on; to close with a stopple.
| ? 1795 Cowper Moralizer Corrected 7 [He] Stoppled his cruse, replac'd his book Within its customary nook. 1834 H. Miller Scenes & Leg. xix. (1857) 283 Macglashan..received the stoup, stoppled with a bunch of straw. 1857 Thoreau Maine W. ii. (1912) 183 A little vial, containing matches, stoppled water-tight. |
▪ IV. stopple
obs. var. stouple, stubble.