stop someone's clock en · VERB
Meanings
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(slang) To kill someone.
"You wouldn't last thirty minutes if I wasn't behind you," Dandy Bob snapped. "Somebody would stop your clock, only they're afraid of me."
2004, Bennett Foster, Gila City, page 147:I cannot let it stop my clock, I'm far from the end of my road.
2016, Smiley Bonds, The People’s Hope:Navarro aimed his cocked Colt at Homer Winters's fear-etched face. “Come and pick him up before I stop his clock.”
2005, Ralph Compton, Bullet Creek:
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(slang) To clean someone's clock; to make incapable of action; to thwart.
“He wasn't going to change his tune,” Tucker said. “So I stopped his clock. Now he knows not to bugger us about.”
2011, Derek Robinson, Hullo Russia, Goodbye England:Those words, from her mouth, stopped my clock.
2022, Barbara Kingsolver, Demon Copperhead:Mom wasn't in no mood for lallygagging and she give him a look that stopped his clock.
1936, Vincent McHugh, Caleb Catlum's America, page 23:Somebody who played a grim little war-game with him; not wanting to kill him, only to kill time, to stop his clock for a couple of hours.
1981, James Barnett, The Firing Squad, page 206:
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Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see stop, clock.
Yet when Garry Kasparov failed to stop his clock after making a move in a World Championship match, it was his opponent, Anatoly Karpov, who was criticized for failing to alert him.
2015, Andy Soltis, Chess Lists, page 11:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| stops someone's clock | Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres | lexicographic | |
| stopping someone's clock | Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| stopped someone's clock | Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part | lexicographic | |
| stopped someone's clock | Tense=Past | lexicographic |
Synonyms
terminate with extreme prejudice · smite · send to hell · eliminate · take down · deactivate · demolish · punch someone's ticket · end · lay waste to · bury · bereave of life · exterminate · scotch · put to sleep · rub out · blight · eradicate · bump off · ex · off · slime out · merc · put down · dust · terminate · top · dead · obliterate · smash · make away with · torpedo · mortify · wreck · dispose of · put someone out of their misery · send to the great beyond · flatten · take out · croak · do in · scuttle · take · scupper · shut up · whack · cack · stop someone's clock · ravage · bag · pick off · pop off · compromised to a permanent end · send to eternity · baptize · top off · stiff · wipe out · pay off · neutralize · send to the grave · put six feet under · slaughter · grease · finish off · waste · put an end to · wet · squash · destroy · send to the next life · knock off · dash · bring down · do · polish off · dispatch · finish · snuff · ruin · crush · annihilate · take care of · wax · slay