impediment

Definitions

1. 1.That which impedes or hinders progress, motion, activity, or effect. Thus far into the bowels of the land Have we marched on without impediment. Shak. Impediment in speech, a defect which prevents distinct utterance. -- Impediment, Obstacle, Difficulty, Hindrance. An impediment literally strikes against our feet, checking our progress, and we remove it. An obstacle rises before us in our path, and we surmount or remove it. A difficulty sets before us something hard to be done, and we encounter it and overcome it. A hindrance holds us back for a time, but we break away from it. The eloquence of Demosthenes was to Philip of Macedon, a difficulty to be met with his best recources, ant obstacle to his own ambition, and an impedimen in his political career. C. J. Smith.
2. 2.To impede. [R.] Bp. Reynolds.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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