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Impede   /ɪmpˈid/   Listen
Impede

verb
(past & past part. impeded; pres. part. impeding)
1.
Be a hindrance or obstacle to.  Synonym: hinder.
2.
Block passage through.  Synonyms: block, close up, jam, obstruct, obturate, occlude.






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"Impede" Quotes from Famous Books



... The famous steeplechase horse, Scots Grey, would never win a race without one of these martingales to keep his head in proper position. When lengthened out to its maximum effective length (Fig. 48), it cannot possibly impede the horse in any of his paces or in jumping. It is, of course, well to accustom a horse to its use before riding him in it over a country. It at least doubles one's power over a puller, and is invaluable for controlling and guiding a ...
— The Horsewoman - A Practical Guide to Side-Saddle Riding, 2nd. Ed. • Alice M. Hayes

... incompatible with all the arts receiving in their turn the attention of those qualified to serve in them? It may be objected that if the forces of industry were withdrawn from the shops every summer it would impede production. But we must look at the matter from a universal point of view. We must consider the increased energy of the industrial forces after three or four months in outdoor work. We must also consider the effect on the cost of living which would result from ...
— My Life and Work • Henry Ford

... isolation (a) promote, (b) impede, originality? What other factors beside isolation ...
— Introduction to the Science of Sociology • Robert E. Park

... the audience; as, when at a momentous point of the plot there entereth one heated with liquor, and causeth a disturbance, or a woman with a huge bonnet becometh the subject of a discussion as to her right to wear the same, and impede the view of them that be behind; also when there cometh in a ruffian, or more, in a pea-coat, who having been charged by an enemy to work the ruin of the piece, endeavoureth to do the same, by dint of hisses or other unseemly noises, all ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... it be inflicted whenever the danger is past.[146] Treaties made with heretics, and promises given to them must not be kept, because sinful promises do not bind, and no agreement is lawful which may injure religion or ecclesiastical authority. No civil power may enter into engagements which impede the free scope of the Church's law.[147] It is part of the punishment of heretics that faith shall not be kept with them.[148] It is even mercy to kill them that they may sin ...
— The History of Freedom • John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton

... soon as the first burst of their anger had subsided, ceased firing, with the consciousness that they were expending their ammunition in vain. When the scow came up over her grapnel, Hutter tripped the latter in a way not to impede the motion; and being now beyond the influence of the current, the vessel continued to drift ahead, until fairly in the open lake, though still near enough to the land to render exposure to a rifle-bullet dangerous. Hutter and March got out two small ...
— The Deerslayer • James Fenimore Cooper

... one's stand in the Tuileries Garden and looking straight across the Place de la Concorde to the far-away Arc de Triomphe. Here is a clear view, in the very heart of Paris, two miles long, over the entire length of the Champs Elysees. The only thing to impede the sight in the least degree is the grand old column of Luxor, which stands in the middle of the Place de la Concorde, but which is of only needle-like proportions in so comprehensive a view as we speak of. This is the finest square of the city, and ...
— Foot-prints of Travel - or, Journeyings in Many Lands • Maturin M. Ballou

... conversation or of remark; and she finally prohibited it under pain of her displeasure. A report even reached Their Royal Highnesses, that the Prince of Peace had demanded their separation and separate confinement. Nothing could, therefore, be effected to impede the progress of wickedness and calamity, but by some temporary measure of severity. In this disagreeable dilemma, it was resolved by the cabal to send the Queen to a convent, until her favourite ...
— Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, Complete - Being Secret Letters from a Gentleman at Paris to a Nobleman in London • Lewis Goldsmith

... the sexes. Not so, however, when the girl is about to emerge from this period of life; a system of dress is then adopted which has the most pernicious effects upon her health, and the development of the body, the employment of tight stays, which impede the free and full action of the respiratory organs, being only one of the many restrictions and injurious practices from which in latter years they are thus doomed to suffer ...
— The Maternal Management of Children, in Health and Disease. • Thomas Bull, M.D.

... be traded upon. Other things being equal his productive value is to be estimated mathematically upon the basis of physique. Born weak and nerveless, he must go to society's ambulance wagon, and so impede the onward march. Born vigorous and rugged, he can help to clear the forest roadway or lead the advancing columns. Fundamentally man is a muscular machine for producing the ideas that shape conduct ...
— A Man's Value to Society - Studies in Self Culture and Character • Newell Dwight Hillis

... have some self-interest in soliciting aid to facilitate negro emigration from the South. The duty of the North in this matter is simply to extend protection and assure safe-conduct to the negroes, if the Southern whites attempt to impede voluntary emigration by either law or violence. Any other course might be cruel to the negro in encouraging him to enter on a new life in a strange climate, as well as an injustice to the white land owners ...
— The Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, 1995, Memorial Issue • Various

... cold disdain;— Cease then its rigors to maintain, That sprightly joys impede, Lest the strain'd cord, with which you bind The freedom of my amorous mind, ...
— Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace • Anna Seward

... acted like magnetism in attracting the girl's confidence to this unseen friend. The priest's share in the interview, indeed, resembled that of one who removes the stones, clustered branches, or whatever entanglements impede the current of a swollen stream. Hilda could have imagined—so much to the purpose were his inquiries—that he was already acquainted with some outline of what ...
— The Marble Faun, Volume II. - The Romance of Monte Beni • Nathaniel Hawthorne

... the narrow and rigid sense of the word) nor obviously useful, and has sought to extirpate the corresponding desires from the heart of Man. On the more artistic side of human life, it has done as much to impede the growth of the soul as Catholicism has done on the more intellectual side; and through its influence on character it has done as much to harden the fibre of the soul as Catholicism has done to relax it, the tendency of both religions being to destroy that elasticity ...
— What Is and What Might Be - A Study of Education in General and Elementary Education in Particular • Edmond Holmes

... For Jove himself cannot retake The fugitive when once he's gone. The picture that we here have drawn Is Opportunity so brief.— The ancients, in a bas-relief, Thus made an effigy of Time, That every one might use their prime; Nor e'er impede, by dull delay, Th' ...
— The Fables of Phdrus - Literally translated into English prose with notes • Phaedrus

... forth; the former holding a light. I darted by them, and, guided by their lamp, fled along the passage, and reached the door. Imagine my dismay! when, either through accident, or by the desire of my fugitive companions to impede pursuit, I ...
— Pelham, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... constable. There were also placed, on each side of the platform, along the whole range of it, men provided with pincers, hammers, &c., to repair any damage that might happen to the platform, or whatever was calculated to impede the progress of the procession, and its attendant ceremonies. These men were also supplied with a like livery, with staves of office; and they were ...
— Coronation Anecdotes • Giles Gossip

... alas! there was nothing of the sort. He wandered sadly through the joyous city, sadder and more discouraged by reason of all the activity around him, jostled and bumped like all those who impede the circulation of the industrious, his heart beating with constant dread, for Grandmamma, for several days past, had been making significant, prophetic remarks at table on the subject of New Year's gifts. For that reason he ...
— The Nabob, Volume 1 (of 2) • Alphonse Daudet

... of dress should be particularly studied. Garments which are light, warm, porous, and which in no way impede or restrict the movements and natural functions of the body, should be worn. It has been found that those who wear no corset nor tight band or bodice will suffer but little, if at all, from morning sickness. Corsets, by holding immobile the waist muscles, ...
— Papers on Health • John Kirk

... as she pronounced the two words "insult me," her eyeballs at once were suffused with purple, and turning herself round she there and then walked away; which filled Pao-y with so much distress that he jumped forward to impede her progress, as he pleaded: "My dear cousin, I earnestly entreat you to spare me this time! I've indeed said what I shouldn't; but if I had any intention to insult you, I'll throw myself to-morrow into the pond, and let the scabby-headed turtle eat me up, ...
— Hung Lou Meng, Book I • Cao Xueqin

... of hereditary transmission," replied Dr. Hillhouse, "is as certain in its operation as the law of gravity. You may disturb or impede or temporarily suspend the law, but the moment you remove the impediment the normal action goes on, and the result is sure. Like produces like—that is the law. Always the cause is seen in the effect, and ...
— Danger - or Wounded in the House of a Friend • T. S. Arthur

... to the quartermaster, and the vessel began to dart ahead as though she fully realized what was expected of her. There was nothing to impede her progress, for the fort was as silent as though it had ceased to exist. A trusty hand was heaving the lead in the fore-chains, for the Bronx was not yet within musket-shot range ...
— Stand By The Union - SERIES: The Blue and the Gray—Afloat • Oliver Optic

... have cleared her whole being, driven away all which might impede. It seemed now as though she could take in things not seen or heard. There was that strange openness of the spirit, that ...
— The Glory Of The Conquered • Susan Glaspell

... Conflict, even the conflict of ideals, is a part of all vital progress, and each party to the conflict needs free play if that conflict is to yield us any profit. That is why Masculinists have no right to impede the play of Feminism, and Feminists no right to impede the play of Masculinism. The fundamental qualities of Man, equally with the fundamental qualities of Woman, are for ever needed in any harmonious civilisation. ...
— Essays in War-Time - Further Studies In The Task Of Social Hygiene • Havelock Ellis

... unquestionably my heart would disavow, and my principles discredit. I undeceived him. 'Learn,' I replied to him, 'that my credit with the people does not depend on my ideas, but on my audacity, the daring impetuosity of my mind, my cries of rage, despair, and fury against the wretches who impede the action of the Revolution. I know the anger, the just anger, of the people, and that is why it listens to, and believes in, me. Those cries of alarm and fury, that you take for words in the air, are the most simple ...
— History of the Girondists, Volume I - Personal Memoirs of the Patriots of the French Revolution • Alphonse de Lamartine

... neighbourhood of Montrouge and the Faubourg St. Germain, and the Federalists were shelling Vanves from Forts Montrouge and Bicetre. There was musketry skirmishing at various points in the Faubourg St. Germain. The Insurgents occupy houses, from which they keep up a rapid fire to impede the march of General Cissey's troops. Among the prisoners taken to-day many have been recognized as old Reds who were actively engaged in the insurrection of June, 1848. A movement has been ordered which will result in completely shutting in the Insurgents within ...
— The Insurrection in Paris • An Englishman: Davy

... mystery beyond the reach of his illuminating torch. He lamented the absence of progress in the understanding of that evidence which assures us of any real existence and matter of fact. But this difficulty did not impede him from an attempted solution. He thought himself performing a great service when he addressed himself to the "destruction of that implicit faith and credulity which is the bane of all reasoning and free inquiry."[136] ...
— History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology • John F. Hurst

... those who have occupied themselves in the laborious and often profitless task of helping the world to new and useful machines can have any idea of the tantalizing anxiety which arises from the apparently petty stumbling-blocks which for awhile impede the realization of a great idea in mechanical invention. Such was the case with the water-tight arrangement in the hydraulic press. In his early experiments, Bramah tried the expedient of the ordinary stuffing-box for the purpose of securing the required water ...
— Industrial Biography - Iron Workers and Tool Makers • Samuel Smiles

... London, but with the express declaration of his determination to fulfill with punctuality and good faith the engagements which His Majesty has contracted by his treaty with the United States, and that they will be instructed to resume their functions whenever the obstacles which impede the progress of the commission at Philadelphia shall be removed. It being in like manner my sincere determination, so far as the same depends on me, that with equal punctuality and good faith the engagements contracted by the United States in their treaties with ...
— Complete State of the Union Addresses from 1790 to the Present • Various

... bright anticipations filled his mind, and he feared not to ask the questions shall narrow interests, shall local jealousies, shall disregard of the high purposes for which our Union was ordained, continue to distract our people and impede the progress of our government toward the high consummation which prophetic statesmen have so often indicated as her destiny?—[Voices, no, no, no! ...
— Speeches of the Honorable Jefferson Davis 1858 • Hon. Jefferson Davis

... combine, by [arbitrarily fixing] an improper price, to impede [the traffic in] any commodity, or to make [an injurious] sale of it,[341] the highest fine ...
— Hindu Law and Judicature - from the Dharma-Sastra of Yajnavalkya • Yajnavalkya

... induced it. You must masticate your food thoroughly—allowing the saliva to mix with it, not bolt it, and then wash it down with copious draughts of tea, coffee or water. This superabundance of fluid only serves to distend the stomach and impede digestion. A change of diet is necessary, but not so essential as a change in the habit of eating. Dyspepsia is more or less catarrh of the stomach. Its lining becomes coated with a slimy mucus that arrests the action of the glands, coats ...
— The Royal Road to Health • Chas. A. Tyrrell

... difficult and dangerous, on account of holes in the sandy bottom of the river, into which they were continually sinking. Besides this, the garrison on the walls were doing their utmost all the time to impede the work by shooting arrows, javelins, stones, and fiery darts among the workmen, by which means vast numbers, both of ...
— Genghis Khan, Makers of History Series • Jacob Abbott

... account of all the money expended should be laid before the house; and, though opposed by the managing committee, who said they considered the motion as made merely as an attempt by the friends of Hastings to vex and impede the committee in the prosecution, it was carried, and an account of the expenses was laid upon the table. But this account was incomplete; and Mr. Burgess had to make three other motions before the particulars of the expenditure ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... column in that direction. Early's line lay, in fact, upon the heights back of the road, his right at Hamilton's Crossing, and with no considerable force on the road itself. So that Sedgwick's advance was skirmishing with scouting-parties, sent out to impede ...
— The Campaign of Chancellorsville • Theodore A. Dodge

... upon great bodies of people, and to which the light-spirited Moors were prone, now spread throughout the camp. They were terrified, they knew not why nor at what, and, throwing away swords, lances, breast-plates, crossbows, everything that could impede their motions, scattered themselves wildly in every direction. They fled without pursuers—from the glimpse of each other's arms, from the sound of each other's footsteps. Reduan de Vanegas, the brave alcayde of Granada, alone succeeded in collecting a body of the fugitives; he made ...
— Chronicle of the Conquest of Granada • Washington Irving

... light. Watch-lights (coated with tallow), it is true, shed a dismal one, "darkness visible;" but then the wick of those have two ribs of the rind, or peel, to support the pith, while the wick of the dipped rush has but one. The two ribs are intended to impede the progress of the flame and make the ...
— The Natural History of Selborne, Vol. 2 • Gilbert White

... rein, And dropping in the meadow, made his steed Furl, yet not shut so close, his wings again, As he had spread them wide for better speed. Down lights Rogero, and forbears with pain From other leap; but this his arms impede: His arms impede; a bar to his desire, And he must doff them would he ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto

... out on the ice to be away from the shelter of the land, we got the full force of the violent wind. But it was not in our faces, and as we had a trail which could be followed, even if with heads down and eyes half closed, the wind did not impede us or cause us serious discomfort. Nevertheless, I did not like to dwell upon the inevitable effect which it would have upon the ice farther out—the opening of leads across ...
— The North Pole - Its Discovery in 1909 under the auspices of the Peary Arctic Club • Robert E. Peary

... they choose, I make no doubt, the best men available among their clerks. But not all of these are suitable material, some being here for a lark, and some being too young to be serious. Such fellows impede the progress of the others. When the movement takes still wider scope, or when we reach the stage of compulsory general training, evidently the leaven that pretty successfully leavens this lump will then, being much diluted, have harder work to do, and to make the mob into a regiment ...
— At Plattsburg • Allen French

... of mud, dirty straw, and fragments of furniture. Here, a car with a broken wheel; there, a uniform, arms, the carcass of a horse. At the corner of a street stood barrels and pieces of furniture which had been thrown out of the houses, as a last barricade to impede the advancing troops; and behind them lay, carelessly strewn over with straw, the corpses of slaughtered men. Anton turned away in horror when he saw the pale faces through the straw. Newly-arrived troops were bivouacking in the square—their horses stood in couples round; in all the streets ...
— Debit and Credit - Translated from the German of Gustav Freytag • Gustav Freytag

... circles of the literary, it was only what might have been expected. It could not become a popular movement. Neither the depth of thinkers like Rapoport and Krochmal, nor the biting satire of an Erter, nor the Zionistic lyricism of a Letteris, had force enough to cry a halt to the Hasidim and impede their dark work. In point of fact, the newer ideas all but failed to make an impression on the most independent of the young Rabbis. They were affrighted by the religious decadence in evidence in Germany, and they took a rather determined stand in opposition to the spread of a secular literature ...
— The Renascence of Hebrew Literature (1743-1885) • Nahum Slouschz

... on the right bank of the Aufidus. Paullus pitched his camp on both banks of the stream, so that the main force came to be stationed on the left bank, but a strong corps took up a position on the right immediately opposite to the enemy, in order to impede his supplies and perhaps also to threaten Cannae. Hannibal, to whom it was all-important to strike a speedy blow, crossed the stream with the bulk of his troops, and offered battle on the left bank, which Paullus did not accept. But such ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... glimpsed at other possibilities. Imprisoned in town life from birth, they contentedly perpetuate the species of a folk with an ebbing future. Yes, ebbing! For if it be not, why is there now so much conscious effort to arrest the decay of town workers' nerves and sinews? Why do we bother to impede a process which is denied? If there be no town-blight on us, why a million indications of uneasiness and a thousand little fights against the march of a degeneration so natural, vast, and methodical, that it brings them all to naught? Our physique ...
— Another Sheaf • John Galsworthy

... recruiting early assumed a serious aspect. Precaution was, therefore, taken to impede the progress of the work of labor agents among negroes, at first by moral suasion and then by actual force. The cities and towns of this State enacted measures requiring a very high license of labor agents, imposing in case of failure to comply with these regulations, a penalty of imprisonment. ...
— Negro Migration during the War • Emmett J. Scott

... arrangements, to regard the position, Athenians, of the hostile country, and consider, that Philip by the winds and seasons of the year gets the start in most of his operations, watching for the trade-winds [Footnote: The Etesian winds blowing from the northwest in July, which would impede a voyage from Athens to Macedonia and Thrace.] or the winter to commence them, when we are unable (he thinks) to reach the spot. On this account, we must carry on the war not with hasty levies, (or we shall be too late ...
— The Olynthiacs and the Phillippics of Demosthenes • Demosthenes

... are not turning out so well as I expected; they are slow walkers and must inevitably impede the faster ones. Two of the best had been told off for Campbell by Oates, but I must alter the arrangement. 'Then I am not quite sure they are going to stand the cold well, and on this first journey they may have to face pretty ...
— Scott's Last Expedition Volume I • Captain R. F. Scott

... strengthened, others erected, a boom stretched across the Hudson to impede the passage of British ships, and obstacles of all kinds placed in the path of the British, should they advance northward. Needing a reliable man in this emergency, Washington sent Putnam to Peekskill, on the Hudson, preceded by a ...
— "Old Put" The Patriot • Frederick A. Ober

... wrinkles; her eyes were those large, dark, lustrous ones so common in her country, but seemed, in the general decay and shrinking of every other part of her face, to have acquired a wild, unnatural appearance; while the falling away of her teeth left nothing to impede the meeting of her hooked nose with her chin. Add to this, she was hump-backed, and twisted in her figure; and one needs all the force of her very good-natured, kindly smile to redeem the image of poor old Jocunda from association with that of ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 7, No. 44, June, 1861 • Various

... Then slowly he sat down beside her, and gradually he put his arm round her waist. She shrank from him, back against the stonework of the embrasure, but she could not shrink away from his grasp. She put up her hand to impede his, but his hand, like his character and his words, was full of power. It would not be impeded. "Alice," he said, as he pressed her close with his arm, "the battle is over now, and I have ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope

... hundred feet from the shore where the water was deep. Captain Hornaby grasped Florence and struck out for the boat house float. She had fainted and did not impede ...
— The Further Adventures of Quincy Adams Sawyer and Mason's Corner Folks • Charles Felton Pidgin

... me, growing ever more acute as the hours dragged wearily away, for, apart from the feelings of horror with which I had witnessed the display of so much unimaginable cruelty and torture, the bonds which confined me to my post had been drawn so tightly as greatly to impede the circulation of blood through my extremities, until by the time that the great square was empty of its crowd of bloodthirsty revellers, the anguish had become so great that I was almost in a fainting condition ...
— A Middy of the Slave Squadron - A West African Story • Harry Collingwood

... that the course pursued was not irregular, and both lords and commons declined to allow that the matter called for an act of indemnity. Compared with the trifling nature of the occurrence, the fuss made over it by the opposition can only be explained by a desire to impede the government in the performance of its duty at a time of national danger. An invasion was threatened. The defence of England, Grenville said, would best be secured by her "water-guard". It was further provided for by raising volunteers. Dundas wrote to the lord-lieutenants ...
— The Political History of England - Vol. X. • William Hunt

... that certainly taxes every conceivable force of will far more than might many great and visible calamities. For all this form of trial is invisible and very largely incommunicable, and it is like trying to walk through deep waters that are undiscerned by those near, but which impede every step, and threaten to ...
— The Life Radiant • Lilian Whiting

... the purpose of making the examinations provided for in this act, the chief inspector of mines, and each district inspector of mines, may enter any mine at reasonable times, by day or night, but in such manner as will not unnecessarily impede the working of the mine, and the owner, lessee or agent thereof shall furnish the means necessary for such entry ...
— Mining Laws of Ohio, 1921 • Anonymous

... dog sprang with a bound into the car. It was Top, a favorite of the engineer. The faithful creature, having broken his chain, had followed his master. He, however, fearing that its additional weight might impede their ascent, wished to ...
— The Mysterious Island • Jules Verne

... difficulties confronting the partners which impede happiness and especially which bring the neurosis of the housewife? For after all we can only examine the field for our ...
— The Nervous Housewife • Abraham Myerson

... matter should be kept quiet; it would do no good, he argued, to noise it about amongst the passengers; the news would only excite them and possibly (in some obscure and undesignated fashion) impede official investigation. He would, of course, spare no pains to fathom the mystery; drastic measures would be taken to secure the detection of the culprit and the restitution of the necklace to its rightful owner. The ship would be minutely, if quietly, searched; not a member of the crew, from captain ...
— The Bandbox • Louis Joseph Vance

... badly. He had to know what the government of the alien empire was doing. Had they been warned of his arrival? Surely they must have, and yet they had taken no steps to impede his progress. ...
— Despoilers of the Golden Empire • Gordon Randall Garrett

... when the Germans fled; and as the two British ships followed close on the heels of the enemy—with the main British fleet still some distance back—one of those deep impenetrable fogs that often impede progress on the North Sea ...
— The Boy Allies at Jutland • Robert L. Drake

... been pretty strong to impede the progress of a thousand men," said I. "However, lead us by the best road and you shall be ...
— Hurricane Hurry • W.H.G. Kingston

... the history of the country presents fewer disagreeable incidents of a personal nature than this. The Democrats in Congress being in such a small minority as to be unable to do any thing effectual either to impede or advance legislation, could only present their vain protests in words. Chafing under the difficulties they encountered, it is not surprising that at times they used language so ill-timed and unparliamentary as to call forth ...
— History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States • Wiliam H. Barnes

... thought and believed, I say, that this would have justified me sufficiently in the eyes of the most respectable and the greater part of the people, for taking such precautions as are calculated to prevent and impede ...
— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott

... he made little progress: and the same quickness of parts and vigour of imagination which united with prudence, or accompanied by judgment, might have raised him to the head of his profession, being unhappily associated with fickleness and caprice, served only to impede his improvement, and obstruct his preferment. And now, with little business, and that little neglected, a small fortune, and that fortune daily becoming less, the admiration of the world, but that admiration ending simply in civility, he lived an unsettled and unprofitable life, generally ...
— Cecilia Volume 1 • Frances Burney

... replied the other. "We had to abandon our guns at Grasse, the Emperor felt that they would impede the rapidity of his progress; and our second day's march was rather trying, the mountain passes were covered in snow, the lancers had to lead their horses sometimes along the edge of sheer precipices, they ...
— The Bronze Eagle - A Story of the Hundred Days • Emmuska Orczy, Baroness Orczy

... well anything I chose to do or not do. The upshot of it was that I decided to test the old leg for myself to determine whether it was fit for marching or not. So I began with a six mile walk on Friday, shooting: and found that my graceful limb did not impede my progress nor develop into any graver symptoms. I was more tired than I should have been a month ago, but that was natural. Yesterday was monopolised by Christmas functions; to-day I mean to try eight ...
— Letters from Mesopotamia • Robert Palmer

... enjoyment. Other considerations might, however, have prevented this: I was a stranger to all around, and knew that I should be either subjected to impertinent interrogations, or become the object of invidious remark—this, in my debilitated state of health, I felt anxious to avoid, as calculated to impede my restoration. My joining the assembled party might also have involved the chance of surveillance during my stay, which, before my departure for Europe, I intended should be rather protracted. I may have been mistaken in ...
— An Englishman's Travels in America - His Observations Of Life And Manners In The Free And Slave States • John Benwell

... permitted to go back to Mississippi, to the limits of his own department and where most of his army still remained, for the purpose of clearing out what Confederates might still be left on the east bank of the Mississippi River to impede its navigation by our boats. He expected also to have the co-operation of Banks to do the same thing on the west shore. Of course ...
— Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Complete • Ulysses S. Grant

... the swamps of the Neva. It required the merciless vigor of despotism to accomplish such an enterprise. Workmen were marched by thousands from Kesan, from Astrachan, from the Ukraine, to assist in building the city. No difficulties, no obstacles were allowed to impede the work. The tzar had a low hut, built of plank, just sufficient to shelter him from the weather, where he superintended the operations. This hut is still preserved as one of the curiosities of St. Petersburg. In less than a year thirty thousand houses were reared, and these ...
— The Empire of Russia • John S. C. Abbott

... lived through the antebellum and subsequent periods, Mr. Jackson has been made to wonder whether the Negroes of Cincinnati are doing as well to-day as Gordon and his colaborers were. This question requires some attention, but an inquiry as to exactly what forces have operated to impede the progress of a work so auspiciously begun would lead us beyond the limits ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Vol. I. Jan. 1916 • Various

... here in 1652, of which they were deprived by the English in 1795, who afterwards restored it to them by treaty at Amiens, in 1802. Eventually it was ceded to Great Britain in 1815. The colony is quite extensive, and would be very productive but for numerous local causes which impede its growth. One of these has been named in the system of labor; but the most important impediment is want of unanimity amongst the settlers themselves. The Dutchman clinging to his ancient customs and habits, which are an abomination in the eyes of the ...
— Kathay: A Cruise in the China Seas • W. Hastings Macaulay

... having in view the unsettled weather which might be expected in the AEgean. The success of our operations was entirely dependent on weather conditions. Even a mild wind from the south or southwest was found to raise such a ground swell as to greatly impede communication with the beaches, while anything in the nature of a gale from this direction could not fail to break up the piers, wreck the small craft, and thus definitely prevent any ...
— World's War Events, Vol. I • Various

... to impede the enemy's traffic into your trench. You build it up and he promptly knocks it down, ...
— Over The Top • Arthur Guy Empey

... of Heav'n! thou light divine! Amid what dangers art thou doom'd to shine! Oft will the body's weakness check thy force, Oft damp thy vigour, and impede thy course; And trembling nerves compel thee to restrain Thy nobler efforts, to contend with pain; Or want (sad guest!) will in thy presence come, And breathe around her melancholy gloom: To life's low cares will thy proud thought confine, And make her sufferings, her impatience, ...
— Tales • George Crabbe

... house. We do not stop to examine what really weighs with us, but on some fancied necessity hasten to do superfluous things. What is it that we really care for in the building of our houses? Is it not, that, like dress, or manners, they should facilitate, and not impede the business of life? We do not wish to be compelled to think of them by themselves either as good or bad, but to get rid of any obstruction from them. They are to be lived in, not looked at; and their beauty must grow as naturally from ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various

... impede the Progress of Sciences and learned Arts, and discourage those that may be inclined to contribute their Assistance or Bounty towards the ...
— The Present State of Virginia • Hugh Jones

... make every wind, as it passed over the earth, waft a higher secret than was ever before attained. A lunatic! I! But next me in array are the prisons of the only sane ones of history, the cells dug by Inquisitorial Ignorance in every age for its wisest men. Now I understand them; walls cannot impede the hands we stretch out to each other across oceans and centuries. One day the purblind world will invoke in its prayers the holy army of the ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 10, No. 58, August, 1862 • Various

... was only a plank bridge. Half a mile below the bridge the water spread far over the broad sand and became very shallow and wide. Dorothy spoke no more, except to say "I'll away." She ran across the moor for a mile, and then scrambled down to the sand so that the tearing wind might not impede her. It was dangerous work for the next mile. Every yard of the way she had to splash through the foam, because the great waves were rolling up very nearly to the foot of the cliffs. An extra strong sea might have caught her off her feet, but she did not think of that; ...
— The Romance of the Coast • James Runciman

... Marguerite at once, careless of the obstacles that might impede the fulfilment of her promise. For it was quite possible that serious difficulties might arise. Madame Leon, who had been invisible since the morning, might suddenly reappear, or the General and his wife might return to dinner. And what could Marguerite answer ...
— Baron Trigault's Vengeance - Volume 2 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau

... has an undeniable influence, and it is perfectly true to say that the social conditions under which individuals are born favour or impede the development of their faculties. There its influence stops; it can intensify inequality, but does not ...
— Reincarnation - A Study in Human Evolution • Th. Pascal

... it. Mr. Davies suggested the speech of Juliet, in which she figures herself awaking in the tomb of her ancestors. Some one mentioned the description of Dover Cliff. JOHNSON. 'No, Sir; it should be all precipice,—all vacuum. The crows impede your fall. The diminished appearance of the boats, and other circumstances, are all very good descriptions; but do not impress the mind at once with the horrible idea of immense height. The impression is divided; you pass on by ...
— Life of Johnson - Abridged and Edited, with an Introduction by Charles Grosvenor Osgood • James Boswell

... the last and best days of time, when the "Sun of Righteousness" should rise upon the world "with healing beneath his wings." An omnipotent arm was incessantly accomplishing the determinations of an omniscient mind. No power could impede the march of his mercy to the predestined point; no casualties defeat his great design; and no lapse of years, or revolution of centuries, diminish the ardour of infinite love, to secure the felicity of his people. The ...
— Female Scripture Biographies, Vol. II • Francis Augustus Cox

... that my natural bias was controlled. I did not go mad, as many would do, at being continually roused from my dreams. I had too much strength to be crushed,—and since I must put on the fetters, could not submit to let them impede my motions. My own world sank deep within, away from the surface of my life; in what I did and said I learned to have reference to other minds. But my true life was only the dearer that it was secluded and veiled over by a thick curtain of available ...
— Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli, Vol. I • Margaret Fuller Ossoli

... were busied in forming a sort of abattis by felling trees, and enclosing in a circular shape the ground we occupied; and by interweaving loose branches with the stakes driven in among these, a breast-work was constructed, which afforded us some cover, and must naturally impede the progress of any ...
— Narratives of Shipwrecks of the Royal Navy; between 1793 and 1849 • William O. S. Gilly

... characters were really of no great assistance to them. Our priests have seen those books, and I myself have seen them likewise, though many were burned at the instigation of the monks, who were afraid they might impede the work of conversion." ...
— Ancient America, in Notes on American Archaeology • John D. Baldwin

... rights but, when the question of capitation fees was wholly dropped, he changed his mind and proposed to retain his former position. The whole Scheme was in danger, until the Governors decided to point out to Mr. Blakiston that his refusal would in no way impede some of the essentials of the change but that, as they could not intrude upon his privileges, he would, while he retained the Mastership, continue to labour under all the disadvantages, which had for ...
— A History of Giggleswick School - From its Foundation 1499 to 1912 • Edward Allen Bell

... in the darkness; for the way, after about a hundred yards or so over level veldt, began to ascend, and blocks of granite seemed to be constantly rising from the ground to impede ...
— The Kopje Garrison - A Story of the Boer War • George Manville Fenn

... they have no effect, which I think possible; as a medical man, I should then recommend, what as a member of his family may startle you. My advice would be, that if it be ultimately found, that his feelings as regard this young girl, are such as are likely to prevent or impede his mind's recovery; why I would then at once allow him to make her any reparation he ...
— A Love Story • A Bushman

... kept waiting a year, with the chance of being put to greater expense to prove our right; for he tells me the court and all about it are so corrupt that no minister is valued if he do not, by straight or crooked ways, draw money into the treasury, and that they will rather impede than aid the course of justice if it be to the king's interest, and that none will stir a hand to the advantage of any one but the king, unless it be secretly to his own, etc. And, though he will say nothing against Simon, save (by way of hint) that all men ...
— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett

... effects of mental depression upon the body. What is related by Laennec? 536. Does the condition of the lungs influence the purity of the blood? Mention some of the conditions that will impede the oxydation of blood in the lungs. What occurred to those persons who escaped death in the ...
— A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) • Calvin Cutter

... countries use to assess the ability to read and write is beyond the scope of the Factbook. Information on literacy, while not a perfect measure of educational results, is probably the most easily available and valid for international comparisons. Low levels of literacy, and education in general, can impede the economic development of a country in the current rapidly ...
— The 1998 CIA World Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... all the technical business, as it is called, of the stage; how to carry myself toward the audience, which was not—but was to be—before me; how to concert my movements with the movements of those I was acting with, so as not to impede or intercept their efforts, while giving the greatest effect of which I was ...
— Records of a Girlhood • Frances Anne Kemble

... madame! fools all! yet always the flesh trammels us, and allures the soul to such sensual delights as bar its passage toward the eternal life wherein alone lies the empire and the heritage of the soul. And why does this carnal prison so impede the soul? Because Satan once ranked among the sons of God, and the Eternal Father, as I take it, has not yet forgotten the antique relationship,—and hence it is permitted even in our late time that always the flesh ...
— Chivalry • James Branch Cabell

... of Commons, it was plain that the legitimate energies of the Opposition were paralyzed thenceforth to the end of the session. Forthwith, there sprung up, however, a sort of conspiracy to annoy the triumphant Ministers, to exhaust their energies, to impede all legislation, as far as those ends could be attained by the most wicked and vulgar faction ever witnessed within the ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. 327 - Vol. 53, January, 1843 • Various

... reached Xanxa in safety. Here Pizarro remained for a time, sending one of his captains, named Hernando de Soto, forward with a small body of men to reconnoitre. This cavalier found villages burnt, bridges destroyed, and heavy rocks and trees placed in the path to impede his cavalry, and realised at length that the natives had risen to resistance. As he neared the Sierra of Vilcaconga he heard that a considerable body of Indians lay in wait for him in its dangerous passes; but though his men and horses were weary, he rashly ...
— The Red True Story Book • Various

... execution of Spike's present design, nothing from aloft had fallen into the water, to impede the brig's way. Forward, in particular, she seemed all wreck; her fore-yard having come down altogether, so as to encumber the forecastle, while her top-mast, with its dependent spars and gear, was ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper

... attention upon details when contemplating a great work of art; on the other hand, it is a sign of the mediocrity of a work of art (poetic or plastic) if one cannot get beyond the details, if they, so to speak, impede the way ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IX - Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig • Various

... despatching the young doctor, on a professional errand. Every thing seemed to favor him. The woman whom Arthur had commanded to keep watch during his absence had sunk back into a heavy sleep as soon as his voice died on her ear—so there was nothing to impede the robber's entrance. Clinton waited till he thought Arthur had had time to reach the place of his destination, and then stole into the sick chamber with noiseless steps. Miss Thusa was awakened ...
— Helen and Arthur - or, Miss Thusa's Spinning Wheel • Caroline Lee Hentz

... stores, Azotic charms and muriatic powers; Hail, with its glassy globes, and brume congeal'd, Rime's fleecy flakes, and storm that heaps the field Strike thro the sullen Stream with numbing force, Obstruct his sluices and impede his course. In vain he strives; his might interior fails; Nor spring's approach, nor earth's whole heat avails; He calls his hoary Sire; old Ocean roars Responsive echoes thro the Shetland shores. He comes, the Father! from ...
— The Columbiad • Joel Barlow

... amazing rapidity, and is always at it with the same hard, quick, ringing, uninterested voice. The gentleman whom I saw in the chair was very clever, and quite up to the task. But as for dignity—! Perhaps it might be found that any great accession of dignity would impede the celerity of the work to be done, and that a closer copy of the British model might not on the whole increase the efficiency of ...
— Volume 2 • Anthony Trollope

... which she has not plunged; hardly an opportunity she has missed. Human affairs, human sins and weaknesses as well as human virtues, have all contributed to her power. So grows a tree, even in uncongenial soil. The rocks that impede the roots later become their support; the rich soil, waiting for an occupant, has been drawn up into the life of the leaves; the very winds that imperilled the young sapling have developed too its power of resistance. Yet these things do ...
— Paradoxes of Catholicism • Robert Hugh Benson

... in search of the letter. He went and speedily returned, bearing it in his hand. He had found it open on the pedestal; and neither voice nor visage had risen to impede his design. ...
— Wieland; or The Transformation - An American Tale • Charles Brockden Brown

... vote or refrain from voting for any particular person or persons at any election, or on account of such person having voted or refrained from voting at any election. And it shall be unlawful for any person by abduction, duress, or any forcible or fraudulent device or contrivance whatever to impede, prevent, or otherwise interfere with, the free exercise of the elective franchise by any voter; or to compel, induce, or prevail upon any voter either to give or refrain from giving his vote at any election, or to give or refrain from giving his vote for ...
— Civil Government in the United States Considered with - Some Reference to Its Origins • John Fiske

... open plains which he represented to be much more favourable for wheel carriages; but I endeavoured to explain to him, by drawing lines in the clay surface, how the various rivers beyond would cross and impede my journey to the Barwan. There were the Castlereagh, Morissett's Ponds, and the Nammoy.[* If Arrowsmith's map had been correct, which it was not, for the Nammoy joins the Darling separately, at least fifty miles higher than the ...
— Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia • Thomas Mitchell

... continuously increased, because of the authority with which He spoke and of the many mighty works He did; His popularity had become such that whenever He moved abroad great multitudes followed Him. At times the people so thronged as to impede His movements, some with a desire to hear more of the new doctrine, others to plead at His feet for relief from physical or other ills; and many there were who had faith that could they but reach Him, or even touch ...
— Jesus the Christ - A Study of the Messiah and His Mission According to Holy - Scriptures Both Ancient and Modern • James Edward Talmage

... were on, exceedingly gay. Mafeking, however, was fighting on still; and many Boers had been killed in Natal. The piece-de-resistance was the last to come. It concerned our own Relief Column, whose progress the enemy had had the temerity to impede at Belmont. How their hardihood had been rewarded with "cold steel"; how they had quailed before it; how they had fled before the conquering Methuen: these and other details, in all their charming vagueness, were received with rapture. It was fine news; and ...
— The Siege of Kimberley • T. Phelan

... plains; a circumstance clearly evincing that this river, as Mr. Oxley has truly stated, is not at all dependent for its supply on the rains falling here. The deep cracks on the plains, so abundant as to impede the traveller, seemed capable of absorbing not only the water which falls upon them, but also any which may descend from the low hills around. During our day's journey I found grey porphyry, the base consisting apparently of granular felspar with embedded crystals ...
— Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol 2 (of 2) • Thomas Mitchell

... King's restoration, the truth seems to be that he clung to the notion of some kind of Commonwealth longer than most people, and made up his mind for the King only when circumstances absolutely compelled him. With the Army, or a great part of it, to back him, he might resist and impede the restoration of Charles; but, as things now were, could he prevent it ultimately? Why not himself manage the transaction, and reap the credit and advantages, rather than leave it to be managed by some one else and be himself among the ...
— The Life of John Milton, Volume 5 (of 7), 1654-1660 • David Masson

... propagated by seeds and these are distributed principally by water and not by wind. No great chances are taken in planting tikug. On the other hand, some teachers state that the seeds are scattered by the wind and that the roots impede ...
— Philippine Mats - Philippine Craftsman Reprint Series No. 1 • Hugo H. Miller

... often demands the suppression of individuality. There will have to be sufficient authority lodged in those who exercise oversight to enable them to lead the Christian forces and administer their resources. But we dare not curtail the freedom of conscience, or impede liberty of prophesying, or turn flexibility of organization into rigidity, lest we hamper the Spirit, who divideth to every man severally even as He will. We do not want "metallic beliefs and regimental ...
— Some Christian Convictions - A Practical Restatement in Terms of Present-Day Thinking • Henry Sloane Coffin

... shilling and eight-pence—paid the money and got the poor fellow clear this time. Sheikh Makouran is a true patriot. Whenever he sees anybody dragged off in this way through the streets, in spite of the Governor, and his being a member of the Divan, he takes upon himself to impede the course of justice (extortion?), abuses with all his might the officer, and if he can't rescue the defaulter, pays the money himself: so strives for public liberty this ...
— Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 • James Richardson

... public opinion generally on the side of the laws and usages against him. The very little countries of the world are proverbial for the production of very great men. But, on the other hand, narrowness of space favours the concentration and coherence of the adverse forces that might impede, if they fail of utterly thwarting, the success which may happen to be grudged by those possessing the will and the power for its obstruction. In Barbados, so far as we have heard, read, and seen ourselves of the social ins and outs of that little sister-colony, ...
— West Indian Fables by James Anthony Froude Explained by J. J. Thomas • J. J. (John Jacob) Thomas

... aggregation of the cells, in masses, is great, other difficulties arise, for the cells, united together, pass less easily than they should through the minute vessels of the lungs and of the general circulation, and impede the current, by which local ...
— Grappling with the Monster • T. S. Arthur

... James H. Caldwell to do whatever he did with all his might. No obstacle seemed to deter or impede the execution of any public or individual enterprise of his. Beside being a splendid performer, he was an accomplished gentleman, and a fine, classic scholar. His reading was select and extensive. At a ...
— The Memories of Fifty Years • William H. Sparks

... kept his sharp, penetrating eyes fixed upon those of the priest. And when the latter had at last ceased speaking, he slowly said: "I did not like to interrupt you, Monsieur l'Abbe, but it was not for me to hear all this. Process against your book has begun, and no power in the world can stay or impede its course. I do not therefore realise what it is that you apparently ...
— The Three Cities Trilogy, Complete - Lourdes, Rome and Paris • Emile Zola

... enemy land between the town and the fort. Small batteries were planted wherever they could sweep the approaches to the breach, and planks studded with nails were sunk in the shallow water of the harbour, to impede the progress of those who might attempt to swim or wade across. For the time, therefore, the functions of Gervaise were in abeyance, and he laboured with the rest of the garrison ...
— A Knight of the White Cross • G.A. Henty

... finally agree to this, and I have spoken to them in that sense. Of course in similar affairs I have to take the mild position of a mediator, which now and then is a little troublesome. However, so it must be; and side issues must not be allowed to impede or endanger the principal question. If therefore you reply to the Hartels, write to them that you specially desire to have the name of H., as the author of the pianoforte arrangement of your "Lohengrin" pieces, inserted in their edition, and that if you write other operas later ...
— Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt, Volume 1 • Francis Hueffer (translator)

... Mandans, and Minatarees, with whom they were at war; but being now convinced that the party were carrying no supplies of the kind, but merely proceeding in quest of their brothers beyond the mountains, they would not impede them in their voyage. He concluded by thanking them for their present, and advising them to encamp on the opposite side of the river, as he had some young men among his warriors for whose discretion he could not be answerable, and ...
— Astoria - Or, Anecdotes Of An Enterprise Beyond The Rocky Mountains • Washington Irving

... JOHANNA. Who dares impede my progress? Who presume The spirit to control which guideth me? Still must the arrow wing its destined flight! Where danger is, there must Johanna be; Nor now, nor here, am I foredoomed to fall; Our monarch's royal ...
— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... from Poitiers by a sunken road flanked by banks and fences, and but wide enough to admit of four horsemen riding abreast along it. The ground on either side of this hollow way was rough and broken so as to impede the movements even of infantry, and to render the maneuvers of a large body of cavalry nearly impracticable. On the left of the position was a little hamlet called Maupertuis. Here on the night of Saturday ...
— Saint George for England • G. A. Henty

... was showering her favors upon him. The last star was now gone, and the entire sky was veiled. The big flakes of snow were falling fast enough to help their concealment, but not fast enough to impede their movements. A mile down the gorge and they halted, still unseen by the enemy, due doubtless to the heavy firing in the valley which was engrossing all the attention of the guerrillas. They could hear it very ...
— The Tree of Appomattox • Joseph A. Altsheler



Words linked to "Impede" :   land up, stifle, back up, dam up, choke off, close up, tie up, foul, prevent, asphyxiate, barricado, block off, interfere, block out, screen, block up, set back, congest, obstruct, impediment, blockade, suffocate, hinder, barricade, bar, clog, occlude, keep, dam, stop, block, inhibit, choke, obturate, free, hobble, jam, earth up, stunt, clog up



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