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le, or line of spars bound together, extended across a river or the mouth of a harbor, to obstruct navigation or passage.

To be held or impeded by entanglement or a light obstruction; as, a kite catches in a tree; a door catches so as not to open.

eet long, used to defend a passage, stop a breach, or impede the advance of cavalry, etc. Obstructions of chain, boom, and cheval-de-frise. W. Irving.

Millenarian. "The obstruction offered by the chiliastic errors." J. A. Alexander.

To obstruct by filling up or clogging any passage; to block up. Addison.

Free from impediment or obstruction; unobstructed; as, a clear view; to keep clear of debt. My companion . . . left the way clear for him. Addison.

To obstruct so as to hinder motion in or through; to choke up; as, to clog a tube or a channel.

A severe paroxysmal pain in the abdomen, due to spasm, obstruction, or distention of some one of the hollow viscera. Hepatic colic, the severe pain produced by the passage of a gallstone from the liver or gall bladder through the bile duct. -- Intestinal colic, or Ordinary colic, pain due to distention of the intestin…

o meet in the way of opposition; to come into conflict with; to oppose; to contradict; to obstruct the operation of; to defeat. So plain a proposition . . . was not likely to be contravened. Southey.

The act of contravening; opposition; obstruction; transgression; violation. Warrants in contravention of the acts of Parliament. Macaulay. In contravention of all his marriage stipulations. Motley.

or use one's power or influence for any object; to assist. These men also contributed to obstruct the progress of wisdom. Goldsmith.

To expel air, or obstructing or irritating matter, from the lungs or air passages, in a noisy and violent manner.

ually of wrought-iron bars, in front of a locomotive engine, for catching or throwing off obstructions on a railway, as cattle; the pilot. [U.S.]

To run counter to; to thwart; to obstruct; to hinder; to clash or interfere with. In each thing give him way; cross him in nothing. Shak. An oyster may be crossed onlove. Sheridan.

Contradiction; thwarting; obstruction. I do not bear these crossings. Shak.

oad; to be burdensome or oppressive to; to hinder or embarrass in attaining an object, to obstruct or occupy uselessly; to embarrass; to trouble. Why asks he what avails him not in fight, And would but cumber and retard his flight Dryden. Martha was cumbered about much serving. Luke x. 40. Cut it down; why cumbereth it…

Rendering action or motion difficult or toilsome; serving to obstruct or hinder; burdensome; clogging. He sunk beneath the cumbrous weight. Swift. That cumbrousand unwieldy style which disfigures English composition so extensively. De Quincey.

To obstruct or restrain the flow of, by a dam; to confine by constructing a dam, as a stream of water; -- generally used with in or up. I'll have the current in this place dammed up. Shak. A weight of earth that dams in the water. Mortimer.

A counteraction of things, which produces an entire stoppage; a complete obstruction of action. Things are at a deadlock. London Times. The Board is much more likely to be at a deadlock of two to two. The Century.

Removing obstructions; having power to clear or open the natural ducts of the fluids and secretions of the body; aperient. -- n.