OBSTRUCT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does obstruct mean? 

• OBSTRUCT (verb)
  The verb OBSTRUCT has 3 senses:

1. hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of

2. block passage through

3. shut out from view or get in the way so as to hide from sight

  Familiarity information: OBSTRUCT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• OBSTRUCT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they obstruct    ... he / she / it obstructs   
Past simple: obstructed   
Past participle: obstructed   
-ing form: obstructing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hinder or prevent the progress or accomplishment of

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

block; blockade; embarrass; hinder; obstruct; stymie; stymy

Context example:

His brother blocked him at every turn

Hypernyms (to "obstruct" is one way to...):

forbid; foreclose; forestall; preclude; prevent (keep from happening or arising; make impossible)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "obstruct"):

stonewall (obstruct or hinder any discussion)

filibuster (obstruct deliberately by delaying)

check (block or impede (a player from the opposing team) in ice hockey)

hang (prevent from reaching a verdict, of a jury)

bottleneck (slow down or impede by creating an obstruction)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

obstructer (someone who systematically obstructs some action that others want to take)

obstruction (the act of obstructing)

obstructor (someone who systematically obstructs some action that others want to take)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Block passage through

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

block; close up; impede; jam; obstruct; obturate; occlude

Context example:

obstruct the path

Hypernyms (to "obstruct" is one way to...):

hinder; impede (be a hindrance or obstacle to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "obstruct"):

block off; blockade (obstruct access to)

barricade; barricado (block off with barricades)

barricade (prevent access to by barricading)

asphyxiate; choke; stifle; suffocate (impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of)

tie up (restrain from moving or operating normally)

dam; dam up (obstruct with, or as if with, a dam)

block out; screen (prevent from entering)

earth up; land up (block with earth, as after a landslide)

bar; barricade; block; block off; block up; blockade; stop (render unsuitable for passage)

back up; choke; choke off; clog; clog up; congest; foul (become or cause to become obstructed)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

free (free or remove obstruction from)

Derivation:

obstructer (any structure that makes progress difficult)

obstruction (the act of obstructing)

obstructive (preventing movement)

obstructor (any structure that makes progress difficult)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Shut out from view or get in the way so as to hide from sight

Classified under:

Verbs of seeing, hearing, feeling

Synonyms:

block; obstruct

Context example:

The trees obstruct my view of the mountains

Hypernyms (to "obstruct" is one way to...):

conceal; hide (prevent from being seen or discovered)

Verb group:

bar; barricade; block; block off; block up; blockade; stop (render unsuitable for passage)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

 Context examples 

But sunlight obstructs this step, the new study shows.

(Sunlight reduces effectiveness of dispersants used to clean up oil spills, National Science Foundation)

This creates a void on the night side of Phobos that the plasma flow is obstructed from directly entering.

(Solar Eruptions Could Electrify Martian Moons, NASA)

The presence of peritoneal attachments (bands) that obstruct the duodenum.

(Ladd Band, NCI Thesaurus)

I was like a wild beast that had broken the toils, destroying the objects that obstructed me and ranging through the wood with a stag-like swiftness.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Pathologic material in a vessel that obstructs myocardial perfusion.

(Coronary Vessel Lesion, NCI Thesaurus/ACC)

It may obstruct the lumen of the fallopian tube and result in infertility or tubal pregnancy.

(Fallopian Tube Endometrioid Polyp, NCI Thesaurus)

In animal studies, ammonium trichlorotellurate exerts its anti-hair loss effect by inducing anagen and obstructing spontaneous catagen via promoting follicular keratinocyte proliferation and interfering with terminal differentiation, respectively.

(Ammonium Trichlorotellurate, NCI Thesaurus)

Once there appeared a strange optical effect: when he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The act of hindering or obstructing or impeding.

(Interference, NCI Thesaurus)

The IceCube Collaboration research team found that fewer energetic neutrinos made it to IceCube's detector on paths that took them all the way through the Earth than from less obstructed paths, including near-horizontal trajectories.

(Antarctic detector offers first look at how Earth stops high-energy neutrinos in their tracks, National Science Foundation)