stop up meaning: definition, quotations

stop up

verb

To fill a hole or cavity, or block (an opening or passage), as with a plug.

So then we […] scratched around and found an old tin washpan, and stopped up the holes as well as we could.1885, Mark Twain, chapter 37, in Huckleberry Finn:

Law UK To permanently close or block (a road or path); to legally extinguish a right of way.

Arts, Hobbies, Lifestyle, Photography To increase the aperture of a photographic lens, moving from an f/stop represented by a higher number to an f/stop represented by a lower number and causing more light to pass into the camera.

To stop down means to narrow the aperture; to stop up or open up means to expand it.2002, Kathleen Tracy, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Portrait Photography, →ISBN, page 18:

Antonyms: stop down