IMPEDIMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does impediment mean? 

• IMPEDIMENT (noun)
  The noun IMPEDIMENT has 2 senses:

1. something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress

2. any structure that makes progress difficult

  Familiarity information: IMPEDIMENT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IMPEDIMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

balk; baulk; check; deterrent; handicap; hinderance; hindrance; impediment

Hypernyms ("impediment" is a kind of...):

difficulty (a factor causing trouble in achieving a positive result or tending to produce a negative result)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "impediment"):

albatross; millstone ((figurative) something that hinders or handicaps)

bind (something that hinders as if with bonds)

diriment impediment ((canon law) an impediment that invalidates a marriage (such as the existence of a prior marriage))

drag (something that slows or delays progress)

obstacle; obstruction (something immaterial that stands in the way and must be circumvented or surmounted)

straitjacket (anything immaterial that severely hinders or confines)

Derivation:

impede (be a hindrance or obstacle to)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any structure that makes progress difficult

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

impediment; impedimenta; obstructer; obstruction; obstructor

Hypernyms ("impediment" is a kind of...):

construction; structure (a thing constructed; a complex entity constructed of many parts)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "impediment"):

bar (an obstruction (usually metal) placed at the top of a goal)

barrier (a structure or object that impedes free movement)

blockade (prevents access or progress)

block; blockage; closure; occlusion; stop; stoppage (an obstruction in a pipe or tube)

encumbrance; hinderance; hindrance; hitch; incumbrance; interference; preventative; preventive (any obstruction that impedes or is burdensome)

obstacle (an obstruction that stands in the way (and must be removed or surmounted or circumvented))

tumbler (a movable obstruction in a lock that must be adjusted to a given position (as by a key) before the bolt can be thrown)

Derivation:

impede (block passage through)

 Context examples 

"What is the nature of the impediment?" he asked.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She reached the house without any impediment, looked at the number, knocked at the door, and inquired for Miss Tilney.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

And even granting some impediment, why was this gentleman to be received by me in secret?

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The expense need not be any impediment.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But during extreme heatwaves, people are more likely to endure the temperature, particularly when the cost of or access to air conditioning is an impediment.

(Extreme temperatures could increase preterm birth risk, NIH)

When this kind of behavior becomes compulsive, however, it can get in the way of normal life — an impediment sometimes observed in illnesses such as Tourette's syndrome and autism spectrum disorders.

(Research on repetitive worm behavior has implications for understanding human diseases, National Science Foundation)

The blockage of bowel contents from evacuation; the causes are attributable to non-structural impediments, such as chemical imbalances or the side effects of medications, narcotics in particular.

(Functional Bowel Obstruction, NCI Thesaurus)

I had gazed upon the fortifications and impediments that seemed to keep human beings from entering the citadel of nature, and rashly and ignorantly I had repined.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

How to settle the claims of Enscombe and Hartfield had been a continual impediment—less acknowledged by Mr. Weston than by herself—but even he had never been able to finish the subject better than by saying—Those matters will take care of themselves; the young people will find a way.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

That the loss of your eyes would be no impediment to your bodily strength, by which you might still be useful to his majesty; that blindness is an addition to courage, by concealing dangers from us; that the fear you had for your eyes, was the greatest difficulty in bringing over the enemy’s fleet, and it would be sufficient for you to see by the eyes of the ministers, since the greatest princes do no more.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)