Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Something that impedes; a hindrance or obstruction.
  • noun Law Something that obstructs the making of a legal contract.
  • noun A physical defect, especially one that interferes with speech.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun That which impedes or hinders progress; hindrance; obstruction; obstacle.
  • To impede.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb rare To impede.
  • noun That which impedes or hinders progress, motion, activity, or effect.
  • noun a defect which prevents distinct utterance.

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

  • noun A hindrance; that which impedes or hinders progress.
  • noun Baggage, especially that of an army; impedimenta

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

  • noun any structure that makes progress difficult
  • noun something immaterial that interferes with or delays action or progress

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin impedīmentum, from impedīre, to impede; see impede.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin impedimentum.

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