stop press
English
Alternative forms
- stop-press when used as a noun in attribution
Etymology
From stop the presses, U.S. newspaper printing jargon.
Noun
- (UK, journalism) The event or news article important enough to delay or interrupt the print, or require a reprint, of a publication, particularly of a newspaper edition.
- 1989, Textual Introduction to The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton [1]
- Three of the errata corrections had already been made as stop-press corrections [...]
- 2002, Russell Miller, Behind the Lines [2]
- Faked Stop Press! announcements in newspapers. A valuable trick because it can always be claimed that the announcement was ‘hushed up’. It is also easy to fake the printing of the Stop Press.
- 2005, Mary Norway, The Sinn Fein Rebellion As I Saw It, [3]
- Another lady thought she would drive a lesson home, so she said: “But you said it was a ‘Stop press,’ and you knew it was not.”
- “It is, miss, but sure they hadn’t time to print the ‘stop press’ on it!!”
- (“Stop press” is the latest news, usually printed on the back of the paper.)
- 1989, Textual Introduction to The Anatomy of Melancholy, Robert Burton [1]
Verb
- (UK) Used to announce an event or news article important enough to delay or interrupt the print, or require a reprint, of publication, particularly of a newspaper edition.
- (idiomatic, UK) Used to grab attention, implying importance, news-worthiness, etc.