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Stop-gap   Listen
noun
Stop-gap  n.  That which closes or fills up an opening or gap; hence, a temporary expedient. "Moral prejudices are the stop-gaps of virtue."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Stop-gap" Quotes from Famous Books



... entrance of a waiter to clear the table provided a merciful stop-gap, and Eckstein, hurriedly consulting his watch, switched abruptly. "By Jove! I'm due at the office this minute to meet a lot of cattlemen," he stammered, and escaped like a man hastening for first aid to ...
— Empire Builders • Francis Lynde

... the sharp iron of a screw steamer's frame ran right against my bow, and at once cut a clean hole quite through the mahogany. Instantly I seized a lump of soft putty, and leaning over the side I squeezed it into the hole, and then "clinched" it (so to speak) on the inside; and this stop-gap actually served for three weeks, until a proper repair ...
— The Voyage Alone in the Yawl "Rob Roy" • John MacGregor

... you must take care to have them supplied with food for such a stop-gap sort of criticism. I think we will never again feel the pressure we have had for this number; the harvest has literally been great ...
— A Publisher and His Friends • Samuel Smiles

... of the hostess said, as if to keep the other husband in countenance. But for an interval no one else joined him, and the mature girl said to the man next her that it seemed rather cold-blooded. He was a man who had been entreated to come in, on the frank confession that he was asked as a stop-gap, the original guest having fallen by the way. Such men are apt to abuse their magnanimity, their condescension. They think that being there out of compassion, and in compliance with a hospitality that had not at first contemplated their presence, they can say anything; they are usually ...
— The Daughter of the Storage - And Other Things in Prose and Verse • William Dean Howells

... difficult to meet; yet she was still not without her stop-gap. "That may be what they'll propose—that we shall go somewhere together, the four of us, for a celebration—except that, to round it thoroughly off, we ought also to have Fanny and the Colonel. They don't WANT them at tea, she quite sufficiently expresses; they polish them off, ...
— The Golden Bowl • Henry James

... Table Etiquette Table Service Use of the Napkin The Spoon at the Dinner Table The Fork and Knife Finger Foods Table Accidents The Hostess When the Guests Arrive The Successful Hostess The Guest Comments on Food Second Helpings The Menu Special Entertainment When to Leave Taking Leave Inviting a Stop-Gap Simple Dinners Inviting Congenial Guests When There are no Servants Hotel ...
— Book of Etiquette • Lillian Eichler

... stone which has been kicked by generations of clowns may come by curious little links of effect under the eyes of a scholar, through whose labors it may at last fix the date of invasions and unlock religions, so a bit of ink and paper which has long been an innocent wrapping or stop-gap may at last be laid open under the one pair of eyes which have knowledge enough to turn it into the opening of a catastrophe. To Uriel watching the progress of planetary history from the sun, the one result would be just as much of ...
— Middlemarch • George Eliot

... by, till it was nearly a month since Pennie had gone away, and Keturah had come to help Betty. She had come "on trial" as a stop-gap only, but no one said a word about her leaving yet. Certainly Betty's wrist was still weak, and this gave Miss Unity an excuse she was glad to have. She almost dreaded the day when Betty should put off her sling and declare herself quite well, ...
— Penelope and the Others - Story of Five Country Children • Amy Walton

... retention of married women. This is a suicidal policy, to be resisted at all costs, both in the interests of the teachers and of the children. Salaries are bound to remain low, while women are forced to consider their profession in the light of a stop-gap until marriage, and not as a life-work. Moreover, there are real dangers in entrusting girls' education entirely to unmarried women. The salaries of assistant teachers vary very considerably. In no single ...
— Women Workers in Seven Professions • Edith J. Morley



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