What does the idiom of time stood still mean?

This phrase means that an action or a larger body of or part of an organisation has stopped moving, stopped production or has been stopped owing to a mechanical breakdown, sabotage or an industrial dispute. In the UK, to give an example, during the Three Day Week, all electricity generation came to a 'standstill' two days a week, and no houses, factories, shops, street-lighting or indeed any form of electrically-generated energy was available, meaning in effect that for two days of those affected weeks, the country was more or less at a <standstill> during the times that the power stations were shut down completely. The phrase can also be used when an industry has been paralysed by stagnation or non-production reasons.