the.com/stall
where momentum goes to die quietly, sometimes mid-air at 30,000 feet
means To stop, delay, or come to a halt — whether deliberately buying time, or because an engine, vehicle, or aircraft has lost the power or speed it needs to keep going.
from From Old English 'steall,' a standing place or stable for animals — a cousin of German 'Stall.' The thread runs through 'a fixed spot' to 'a market booth where a seller stands' to the verb sense of being stuck or held in place. The 'play for time' meaning likely came later, possibly via the old thieves' cant 'stall' for a decoy who keeps a victim occupied while a pickpocket works. The engine sense — and the chilling aviation one, where wings lose their grip on the air — borrows that same idea of motion grinding to a standstill.
- flight risk
- a plane stalls from angle, not speed alone
- chess sense
- stalemate is half a point, not a loss
- engine death
- manual cars stall when clutch betrays you
- market roots
- named for the medieval merchant's market booth
- delay tactic
- stalling buys time when answers run out
wright brothers first flight — december 17 1903 at kitty hawk when the flyer entered an aerodynamic stall at 120 feet
air france flight 447 — june 1 2009 airbus a330 crashed into atlantic ocean after multiple aerodynamic stalls during thunderstorm
colgan air flight 3407 — february 12 2009 dash 8 crashed near buffalo new york after stalling in icing conditions