stymie
A situation where an opponent's ball is directly in the way of one's own ball and the…A situation where an opponent's ball is directly in the way of one's own ball and the hole, on the putting green (abolished 1952).
» Nuclear power is stymied by the new laws.
Ядерное оружие ограничено новыми законами. — kukla
marco87 · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 sensesA situation where an opponent's ball is directly in the way of one's own ball and the hole, on the putting green (abolished 1952).
a situation in golf where an opponent's ball blocks the line between your ball and the hole
(broadly)An obstacle or obstruction.
Examples
3 sentencesNuclear power is stymied by the new laws.
ruЯдерное оружие ограничено новыми законами. — kukla
Progress on the project has been stymied by lack of money.
Parents should be careful not to stymie the individuation of their children.
Origin
From the meaning in golf (where the stymie ball blocks the other ball from "seeing" the hoFrom the meaning in golf (where the stymie ball blocks the other ball from "seeing" the hole), perhaps from Scots stymie, stimie (“person with poor eyesight”), from Scots stime (“the least bit”). Or from Scots styme (“tiny bit, glimmer”) as in se nocht ane styme (“not to see a glimmer (of something)”). If so, it is a doublet of stime.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Dictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.