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To hinder; to stop in progress; to obstruct; as, to impede the advance of troops. Whatever hinders or impedes The action of the nobler will. Logfellow.

To entangle or run against so as to impede motion.

To stop or hesitate as if suddenly frightened, or in doubt, or impeded by unforeseen difficulties; to take alarm; to exhibit hesitancy and indecision. We start and boggle at every unusual appearance. Glanvill. Boggling at nothing which serveth their purpose. Barrow.

To reach or impinge against the bottom, so as to impede free action, as when the point of a cog strikes the bottom of a space between two other cogs, or a piston the end of a cylinder.

rojects upward. They are scattered on the ground where an enemy's cavalry are to pass, to impede their progress by endangering the horses' feet.

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.

A condition of interrupted or impeded progress; arrest; stop; delay; as, to hold an enemy in check. Which gave a remarkable check to the first progress of Christianity. Addison. No check, no stay, this streamlet fears. Wordsworth.

nted spikes or spears, five or six feet 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.

coil of small resistance and large inductance, used in an alternating-current circuit to impede or throttle the current, or to change its phase; --called also reactance coil or reactor, these terms being now preferred in engineering usage.

That which hinders or impedes motion; hence, an encumbrance, restraint, or impediment, of any kind. All the ancient, honest, juridical principles and institutions of England are so many clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence and opression. Burke.

Lamed; lame; disabled; impeded. "The crippled crone." Longfellow.

To render difficult; to impede; to perplex. [R.] Sir W. Temple.

To free from that which cumbers or impedes; to disencumber. [Archaic] Pope.

To free from encumbrance, or from anything which clogs, impedes, or obstructs; to disburden. Owen. I have disencumbered myself from rhyme. Dryden.

To hinder from freedom of thought, speech, or action by something which impedes or confuses mental action; to perplex; to discompose; to disconcert; as, laughter may embarrass an orator.

To impede the motion or action of, as with a burden; to retard with something superfluous; to weigh down; to obstruct or embarrass; as, his movements were encumbered by his mantle; his mind is encumbered with useless learning. Not encumbered with any notable inconvenience. Hooker.

That which encumbers; a burden which impedes action, or renders it difficult and laborious; a clog; an impediment. See Incumbrance.

To impede or bar by estoppel. A party will be estopped by his admissions, where his intent is to influence another, or derive an advantage to himself. Abbott.

Free of impediment; unimpeded. To make the way plain and expedite. Hooker.

Two or more vanes set on a revolving axis, to act as a fanner, or to equalize or impede the motion of machinery by the resistance of the air, as in the striking part of a clock.