Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In an obstructive manner; by way of obstruction.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adverb In an obstructive manner.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in an obstructive manner

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Shô (or: sô), meaning “sound,” is the breath of Dainichi, the vibrations of the five material elements in their mutually non-obstructively colliding interplay that resonate sounds through the air.

    Laughter 2009

  • One hopes that they'll use their presence constructively, not obstructively.

    Jonathan Handel: SAG National Executive Director Firing -- How it Went Down 2009

  • The only way Democrats could have any power would be by acting as obstreperously and obstructively as possible, to prevent more damage, by using their investigative power in the House to lay out the crimes of this administration as clearly as possible.

    Election Postmortem: What's Next? 2006

  • Their mental disposition was often obstructively critical and insubordinate.

    The Shape of Things to Come Herbert George 2006

  • By defensively and obstructively making the process more difficult, the government had landed up pointing the finger back at itself.

    ANC Daily News Briefing 2003

  • After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively cynical and decided he quite liked human beings after all, but he always remained desperately worried about the terrible number of things they didn't know about.

    The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy Adams, Douglas 1996

  • After a while he abandoned this one as well as being obstructively cynical and decided he quite liked human beings after all, but he always remained desperately worried about the terrible number of things they didn't know about.

    The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Adams, Douglas, 1952- 1979

  • We must lay hold upon and set to work for a higher civilization the motives and purposes that in the past have worked obstructively, and now destructively.

    The Psychology of Nations A Contribution to the Philosophy of History G.E. Partridge

  • Never was cart put more obstructively before horse than when

    Art Clive Bell 1922

  • And, because nothing stands more obstructively between the public and the grand æsthetic ecstasies than the habit of feeling a false emotion for a pseudo-work-of-art, he must be as remorseless in exposing shams as a good schoolmaster would be in exposing charlatans and short-cuts to knowledge.

    Since Cézanne Clive Bell 1922

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