Word.ws English Dictionary

autostop

autostop noun: a coupon-based system of hitchhiking that operated in communist Poland from the 1950s until the 1990s.

Noun (1)

autostop (uncountable)

  1. A coupon-based system of hitchhiking that operated in communist Poland from the 1950s until the 1990s.
    • Youth organizations have given autostop activity their stamp of approval.1960, Youth and Freedom - Volume 3, page 11
    • Autostop members have an advantage over other hitchhikers, because drivers of state cars are allowed to pick up only hitchhikers who display the blue rule book, and most of the cars belong to the state.1971, Marc Francis Roddin, Notes on a social history of hitchhiking, page 34

Noun (2)

autostop (plural autostops)

  1. An automatic stopping mechanism or system.
    • The newest Prager shell features single handed immersion biometry, a Luer fitting to facilitate tubing changes, an autostop for exact manufacturer specified probe depth, and six centering guides to ensure perpendicularity.2004, H. John Shammas, Intraocular Lens Power Calculations, →ISBN, page 95
    • Or you can utilize the autostop features of your trading software to help lock in most of the profit (onehalf to twothirds) of the current potential profit for the move.2012, Hima Reddy, The Trading Methodologies of W.D. Gann, →ISBN

Verb

autostop (third-person singular simple present autostops, present participle autostopping, simple past and past participle autostopped)

  1. (rare) To stop automatically.

Examples of autostop in a sentence

  • This is a really interesting option of Tshark since it allows us to specify an autostop condition, thanks to which we will not have to be present to manually stop a capture.2013, Borja Merino, Instant Traffic Analysis with Tshark How-to, →ISBN:
  • The autostop beams would detect people ahead and apply the brakes.2016, RJ Bailey, Safe From Harm, →ISBN:

Forms of autostop

Noun
pluralautostops
Verb
third-person singular presentautostops
present participleautostopping
past participleautostopped
pastautostopped

Origin of autostop

Borrowed from Polish autostop, from French auto-stop, and this a pseudo-anglicism, from auto- (relating to cars) + stop (hitchiking).

From auto- (automatic) + stop (cease moving).

Questions about autostop

What does autostop mean?
Autostop means a coupon-based system of hitchhiking that operated in communist Poland from the 1950s until the 1990s.
How do you use autostop in a sentence?
This is a really interesting option of Tshark since it allows us to specify an autostop condition, thanks to which we will not have to be present to manually stop a capture.
What part of speech is autostop?
Autostop can be a noun or a verb.
What is the plural of autostop?
The plural of autostop is autostops.

Words near autostop in the dictionary

  1. autostimulated
  2. autostimulates
  3. autostimulating
  4. autostimulation
  5. autostimulatory
  6. autostop
  7. autostopped
  8. autostopping
  9. autostops
  10. autostrada
  11. autostradas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: autostop (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “autostop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/autostop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.