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ess of restraining, or of holding back or hindering from motion or action, in any manner; hindrance of the will, or of any action, physical or mental. No man was altogether above the restrains of law, and no man altogether below its protection. Macaulay.

The act of retarding; hindrance; the act of delaying; as, the retardation of the motion of a ship; -- opposed to Ant: acceleration. The retardations of our fluent motion. De Quinsey.

That which rubs; that which tends to hinder or obstruct motion or progress; hindrance; obstruction, an impediment; especially, a difficulty or obstruction hard to overcome; a pinch. Every rub is smoothed on our way. Shak. To sleep, perchance to dream; ay, there's the rub. Shak. Upon this rub, the English ambassadors th…

ly fixed in pointing it out. (b) A fixed or stationary condition arising from obstacle or hindrance; a deadlock; as, to be at a dead set. (c) A concerted scheme to defraud by gaming; a determined onset. -- To make a dead set, to make a determined onset, literally or figuratively.

To pass along smoothly or unobservedly; to move gently onward without friction or hindrance; as, a ship or boat slides through the water. Ages shall slide away without perceiving. Dryden. Parts answering parts shall slide into a whole. Pope.

A hindrance; an obstruction. [Obs.] Bacon.

Hindrance; let; check. [Obs.] They were able to read good authors without any stay, if the book were not false. Robynson (more's Utopia).

Stop; halt; hindrance. [Obs.] Bacon.

The act of stopping, or the state of being stopped; hindrance of progress or of action; cessation; repression; interruption; check; obstruction. It is doubtful . . . whether it contributed anything to the stop of the infection. De Foe. Occult qualities put a stop to the improvement of natural philosophy. Sir I. Newton.…

To suffer to be, or to be done, without prohibition or hindrance; to allow or permit negatively, by not preventing; not to restrain; to put up with; as, to tolerate doubtful practices. Crying should not be tolerated in children. Locke. We tolerate them because property and liberty, to a degree, require that toleration.…

Excessive. [Obs.] Such a world of holidays, that 't a woundy hindrance to a poor man that lives by his labor. L'Estrange.

To give way; to cease opposition; to be no longer a hindrance or an obstacle; as, men readily yield to the current of opinion, or to customs; the door yielded. Will ye relent, And yield to mercy while 't is offered you Shak.