stope
verbEtymology Apparently related to step, but with uncertain phonological development. Perhaps from a German Low German word like Stoop (“step”), from Middle Low German stōpe (“step”). More at stoop.
stope
noun[stoʊp]
Etymology Apparently related to step, but with uncertain phonological development. Perhaps from a German Low German word like Stoop (“step”), from Middle Low German stōpe (“step”). More at stoop.
1
A mining excavation in the form of a terrace of steps.
- The other smell […] that worked its way into your clothes, your skin, your spirit, believed here to rise by way of long-deserted drifts and stopes, from the everyday atmosphere of Hell itself.2006, Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day, Vintage, published 2007, page 318:
- Derived terms
- stope assay plan, stope board, stope fillings, stope hoist, stope pillar, stoper