halt¹ / hôlt/ • v. bring or come to an abrupt stop: [tr.] there is growing pressure to halt the bloodshed | [intr.] she halted in mid-sentence. ∎  [in imper.] used as a military command to bring marching soldiers to a stop: company, halt!• n. a suspension of movement or activity, typically a temporary one: a halt in production | a bus screeched to a halt.PHRASES: call a halt demand or order a stop: he decided to call a halt to all further discussion.halt² archaic • adj. lame.• v. [intr.] walk with a limp: he halted slightly in his walk. ∎  hesitate; waver: that night the ingénue halted in her lines and put no heart into her work.

halt2 temporary stoppage on a march or journey. XVII (earlier †alto XVI, †alt XVII). orig. in phr. make halt — G. halt machen (whence also F. faire halte, It. far alto); in the G. phr. halt is prob. orig. based on the imper. (‘stop’, ‘stand still’) of halten HOLD1.
Hence vb. XVII.

halt (or HALT) A program instruction that stops execution of the program. Originally a halt instruction actually halted the processor (hence the name), but now it more often causes a trap into the operating system so that the operating system can take over control and, for example, start another program.

halt1 (arch.) lame. OE. h(e)alt = OS. halt, OHG, halz, ON. haltr, Goth. halts :- Gmc. *χaltaz, of unkn. orig.
So halt vb. be lame OE.; waver XIV; proceed lamely XV. — OE. healtian, corr. to OS. halton, OHG. halzēn, f. the adj.

Halt

a stand of armed men.