stop one’s clock—(Chess) press one’s chess clock to measure time:
- The last move is not considered as made until after the player has stopped his clock.
Note: The expression is not antonymous in meaning to the phrase one’s biological clock is ticking—used of a woman who may soon be too old to bear a child:
- Your biological clock is ticking. Why are you spending some of that precious time in a relationship about which you feel skeptical?
stop someone’s clock —(sl.) kill a person:
- Mr. Carlson, despite the drug agents’ best efforts to stop his clock, miraculously survived three gunshot wounds. He decided to sue the government.
Note: The expression does not correlate in meaning with the phrase clean someone’s clock—(sl.)
1. give smb. a beating:
- He’s much bigger than you and could easily clean your clock.
2. defeat a person decisively in a fight or competition:
- If this is a battle the other side wants to have, we welcome it. We’ll clean their clock!
stop the clock—
1. postpone a deadline by not counting the elapsing time:
- Management agreed to stop the clock so that a new contract could be negotiated before the present one expired.
2. = stop one’s clock:
- Either player may stop the clock to summon the arbiter to settle a dispute.