From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishgrind to a haltgrind to a halt (also come to a grinding halt) a) STOP MOVINGif a vehicle grinds to a halt, it stops gradually Traffic ground to a halt as it approached the accident site. b) STOP HAPPENINGif a country, organization, or process grinds to a halt, its activity or the process gradually stops After two days the talks had ground to a halt. → grind
Examples from the Corpus
grind to a halt• Treasury yield drops However, the rally in U. S. Treasuries ground to a halt.• But low hydrogen yields and poisoned catalysts soon had these systems grinding to a halt.• Offices, factories, industry, communications, transport ... all of it grinding to a halt.• The co-op went bankrupt during the Great Depression, said Gross, and maintenance slowly ground to a halt.• The tiny pens, scrawling in palsied traces on endless white ribbons of paper, slowly ground to a halt.• Traffic ground to a halt as we got closer to the accident.• Production ground to a halt at five of the factories.• It seemed as though things had ground to a halt in there.• Business ground to a halt throughout much of the Northeast, South and Midwest.• Compare the problems in Glen Nevis where in summer traffic all but grinds to a halt, to see the possible outcome. 