A user needs to stop an application that is running on a laptop.

The CompTIA Tech+ Study Guide states:

“Nearly every program running on a computer is run as a process. This includes system operations, background tasks, and applications… The Task Manager utility helps you see everything that’s running on a computer… If I have an app that’s taking up too much memory, I can click it and then click End Task to shut it down. This is also known as killing the process.”

Thus, process management is the OS function that allows users to stop (terminate) running applications.

Verified Reference:

Chapter 4: Operating Systems — “Process Management” (pp. 238–240).