HINDRANCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does hindrance mean? 

• HINDRANCE (noun)
  The noun HINDRANCE has 3 senses:

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

2. any obstruction that impedes or is burdensome

3. the act of hindering or obstructing or impeding

  Familiarity information: HINDRANCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• HINDRANCE (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 ("hindrance" 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 "hindrance"):

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:

hinder (hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any obstruction that impedes or is burdensome

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

encumbrance; hinderance; hindrance; hitch; incumbrance; interference; preventative; preventive

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

impediment; impedimenta; obstructer; obstruction; obstructor (any structure that makes progress difficult)

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

clog (any object that acts as a hindrance or obstruction)

speed bump (a hindrance to speeding created by a crosswise ridge in the surface of a roadway)

Derivation:

hinder (be a hindrance or obstacle to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of hindering or obstructing or impeding

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

hinderance; hindrance; interference

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

act; deed; human action; human activity (something that people do or cause to happen)

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

foiling; frustration; thwarting (an act of hindering someone's plans or efforts)

antagonism ((biochemistry) interference in or inhibition of the physiological action of a chemical substance by another having a similar structure)

obstruction (the act of obstructing)

complication (the act or process of complicating)

deterrence (the act or process of discouraging actions or preventing occurrences by instilling fear or doubt or anxiety)

bar; prevention (the act of preventing)

 Context examples 

“Doen't fear me being any hindrance to you, I have no more to say, ma'am,” he remarked, as he moved towards the door.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“It is such men as he,” retorted Micheldene, “who are like rats in a wheat-rick or moths in a woolfels, a harm and a hindrance to all peaceful and honest men.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The King may do what he will without hindrance from one whom he has cruelly wronged.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I own that my heart began to fail me when the time for action came so close, but I did not say anything, for I had a greater fear that if I appeared as a drag or a hindrance to their work, they might even leave me out of their counsels altogether.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hindrance to my speed, I resolved, contrary to my first intention, to make the being of a gigantic stature, that is to say, about eight feet in height, and proportionably large.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Anti-CD3 immunotoxin A-dmDT390-bisFv(UCHT1) consists of 1-390 amino acid residues of chain A diphtheria toxin (DT) joined via a spacer to the Fv fragment of UCHT1, which is connected to a second UCHT1 Fv fragment via a disulfide bond (hence the bisFv designation); the addition of the second Fv fragment overcomes the steric hindrance of immunotoxin binding due to the large N-terminal DT domain.

(Anti-CD3 Immunotoxin A-dmDT390-bisFv(UCHT1), NCI Thesaurus)

Everyone was too busy with their own affairs to help her, and the little girls were only hindrances, for the dears fussed and chattered like so many magpies, making a great deal of confusion in their artless efforts to preserve the most perfect order.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

And then there was such comfort in the very easy distance of Randalls from Hartfield, so convenient for even solitary female walking, and in Mr. Weston's disposition and circumstances, which would make the approaching season no hindrance to their spending half the evenings in the week together.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

But though so much of the matter was known to them already, that Mrs. Jennings might have had enough to do in spreading that knowledge farther, without seeking after more, she had resolved from the first to pay a visit of comfort and inquiry to her cousins as soon as she could; and nothing but the hindrance of more visitors than usual, had prevented her going to them within that time.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I would not have the shadow of a coolness between the two whose intimacy I have been observing with the greatest pleasure, and in whose characters there is so much general resemblance in true generosity and natural delicacy as to make the few slight differences, resulting principally from situation, no reasonable hindrance to a perfect friendship.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)