Comments for "しばらくして小さい黒いウサギは食べるのを止めて座り込みました。それはとても悲しそうにみえた。"

In this sentence the particle の is being used with its meaning #2 = nominalize verbs/adjectives.

Reason:

食べる is a verb meaning "to eat."

Adding の after it turns the verb's action into a noun-like concept. In this case, 食べるの means "the act of eating."

• This is needed because the verb 止める is a transitive verb i.e. it needs an object. A verb cannot be used as an object of another verb, so の is needed to nominalize it.

Then we have:

• 食べるのを止めて translating to "stopped eating."