Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 297. The verb phrase today is to stop cold.
Okay. If somebody wants a screenshot do it right now. Let's get right to it. There are
several variations to this phrase such as to stop dead, to stop in one's tracks, to stop on a dime,
to stop on the spot. Okay. All of these phrases mean to halt or to stop or
to come to a sudden stop. They all mean to stop very quickly, very suddenly. Let's continue. The
phrase cold seems to have appeared to stop, to stop cold seems to appear in the late 1800''s.
The earliest is to come to a dead stop which seemed to appear in the 1790's. To stop cold
may also be related to the idea to come to a dead stop. If one is dead soon after the body will be
cold. So they could be related. Maybe actually the phrase to stop cold turkey is is directly related
to stop cold too. We often used hear to stop cold turkey. Where did they get that from ? Well first,
to stop cold means stop suddenly. Remember anytime we say to stop cold turkey it means that you have
some sort of an addiction and that you cut it off all full at once. You don't try to cut down
and eventually stop over time. You just stop like the next day. You continue to do it. That's it
like if you were a heavy chain smoker or something you know, you smoked two packs a day. Tomorrow
you smoke zero. You don't you don't gradually go down to one pack or ten cigarettes a day.
You , you stop immediately. That's what to stop cold turkey means. And turkey we used
to use that that was I think for with a drug addict. So eventually when they were trying to
stop cold turkey a lot of times that their skin got pale almost like the chicken skin or the
bird skin. That's where that idea actually came from. All right. Let's get back to this.
Even though I found no evidence to completely back it up. Maybe you could it could help you to
remember if you kind of think of it this way. Even though this may not really be completely correct.
It feels like all these phrases could be related to hunting. If you shoot an animal you stop him
cold. Well you you shoot him. That he's going die. He'll be cold soon. You stop him dead. Definitely,
if you shoot him and you know he died immediately from the bullet wound. You stop him in his
tracks. Yeah. Now hunting is about tracks. You're tracking him. You know this. Right where he is.
To stop on a dime well then now the dime time originally is supposed to relate to the 10-cent
piece. So this could be two things. One it's very small it could be like the size of a bullet hole
or it could just mean that you , you stop on that exact spot. And that's the same with the next
one. To stop on the spot. So if you shoot someone usually they fall right at the spot that they're
at. They don't usually go too much further. So yeah basically, to stop on the spot. So it might
help and it might help you to remember them all if you kind of relate them to hunting, even if that's
not the original origin, it might help because they all seem to kind of fit into the idea of
hunting. All right. Let's continue. And we have five examples to show just how we would use this.
Here's the first one. The machine just stopped cold in the middle of the wash. So it was having a
wash. The wash was going on the washer the washing machine and then before it got finished , it just
stop. It just broke down before it even finished that load. All right. Let's continue. He stopped
cold in the middle of his speech when he felt the vibrations of a strong earthquake. So maybe
it's going to be a strong earthquake and then he realized, oh this could be a serious one. Then he
stopped his speech right there and then. All right number three here. That hunter shot this deer and
stopped him in his tracks. Again you could say it. You could almost substitute any of these here.
All right number four here. They have , they have an emergency button next to the machine. It could
stop on a dime. Yeah, especially very suddenly on a dime. Again maybe small or quick. That's
the idea . Just in case a person got a body part caught in the machine. Yeah. So in a lot
of these factories. Sometimes they'll be afraid that somebody gets a body part. An arm or a leg
caught in a machine and they there's an emergency button to stop the machine immediately. So that
limits the damage. All right number five. That company claims its brakes are so good it could
stop on the spot. Okay. This is just the way we may hear all of these used anyway. I hope you
got it. I hope it was clear. I hope it was very informative. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.