stop short of sth
C2 If you stop short of doing or saying something, you decide not to do or say it although you almost do:
I stopped short of telling him the brutal truth.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Abstaining and refraining
- abstain
- abstemious
- abstention
- abstinence
- back off
- fast
- forborne
- give
- give (sth) up
- give up sth
- hors de combat
- keep
- keep (sb/sth) out of sth
- refrain
- step
- step back
- stop
- swear off sth
- touch
- wouldn't touch sth with a barge pole idiom
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