I read a sentence and stooped dead in my tracks

Question

Hi,I have a question in the following sentences.The very next day, we were in the car for a while and I was reading the book Socialnomics. As I was finishing up a chapter, I read a sentence and stopped dead in my tracks.What does "my tracks" mean? Could you rephrase another expression?Thanks in advance,Ryo

JohnParis · Accepted Answer

The very next day, we were in the car for a while and I was reading the book Socialnomics. As I was finishing up a chapter, I read a sentence that made me stop reading and think deeply.

JoshStafford · Answer

"Stopped dead in my tracks" is an idiom that means that something has happened to bring a person's train of thought to an immediate halt.

A track is a path. Tracks are also railway lines; "railway tracks". They can also be footprints left behind. I'm not sure of the origins of the idiom, but suggest the imagery is a train hitting something that stops it dead in its tracks. Other imagery is that the person was so shocked by whatever it was that they immegiately stopped walking.

Whatever the origin, the person read a sentence towards the end of the chapter and was surprised by it. Possibly the person realised there was a connection to another event.

I'd suggest a different idiom would be more appropriate as it clashes with being in a car. [Did that person literally stop the car in its tracks? Why was that person reading while driving?]

As I was finishing up a chapter, I read a sentence ~~and stopped dead in my tracks~~ that brought my headlong train of thought to a screeching halt.

I read a sentence and stooped dead in my tracks

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