Obstructed

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. To be interfered with in movement, progress, or function due to barriers present, rendering actions difficult or impossible
2. To experience a hindrance in progress, movement, or operation owing to barriers, which renders tasks complex or unfeasible
3. Prevented from moving forward or achieving a goal due to something in the way

Etymology: "Obstructed" is the past tense and past participle of "obstruct", so its story is really the story of that verb. The verb comes from the Latin "obstruere", built from "ob", meaning "against" or "in the way", and "struere", meaning "pile up" or "build". To obstruct something was literally to pile material up against it until the way was blocked. The Latin past participle "obstructus", meaning "blocked up", is the form that gave English its base. The sense of physical blockage has never fully gone away. A drain can be obstructed by leaves, and a road by a fallen tree, which is still the image of a pile set across a path. Figurative uses, such as an obstructed view or a bill obstructed in parliament, extend the same idea from stone and debris to plans and progress.