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🚫 A trade ban 🚫 To ban trade 📰 To block release
to embargo

to embargo

1 7.0
To stop trade with a country or limit goods sold to it
  • verb
  • /ɪmˈbɑrɡoʊ/
  • Formal
translation icon : imponer un embargo a
  • The PLA Navy could also attempt to embargo Taiwan to prevent seaborne contact with the outside world.

Examples

  • The PRE might, therefore, face U.S. military opposition if they tried to embargo Taiwan; in which case, the embargo would not succeed.

    Academic text (1997)

  • "It's a dangerous thing to suggest you can solve vulnerabilities by embargoing a company," he said.

    Blog text (20)

  • Simply put, Egypt has been far too important to embargo, but the peace treaty was far too important to be quiet about.

    Academic text (1999)

  • The opportunity here is to embargo trading, force them to run 23 continued through their own resources faster, and bring them to their knees.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • We've been embargoing trade to them for years.

    Iron Eagle (1986)

  • As for the Americans, what kind of a shield have they been, embargoing arms to us while Russia armed Egypt?

    Fiction book (1993)

  • And what I'd like to know is, if we keep embargoing them on energy... ...then someday soon, are we gonna have a nice, secular... ...pro-Western, pro-business government?

    Syriana (2005)

  • Although it did not appear to provide weapons, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has suggested that a U.N. resolution embargoing arms shipments to Libya only applies to weapons going to the Libyan government.

    Blog text (23)

  • FDA enforcement powers with respect to pesticide residues in food would be expanded to include new authorities to recall and embargo foods containing violative pesticide residues and to levy civil penalties for such violations.

    Academic text (1994)

  • The government decided to embargo all trade with the country until further notice.

Synonyms

to prohibit
vsto embargo
299 3.3

To officially say that something is not allowed by law

is specific to stopping trade with a country or organization
to interdict
vsto embargo
  • Formal
4 9.4

To stop someone or something by an official order

is used mainly for trade restrictions rather than general formal bans

Antonyms

to allow
∞ 1.0

To let something happen or let someone do something

Compounds

trade embargo
  • Formal
7 5.9

An official government order stopping trade with a country or some goods

How Strict

to blockade
9 6.0
to embargo
  • Formal
1 7.0
to ban
  • Formal
484 1.4
to restrict
361 3.1

Surface Forms

embargo infinitive
embargoed past
embargoed past participle
embargoing present participle
embargoes third person singular

Etymology

Embargo comes from the Spanish verb embargar, which means 'to block' or 'to seize', and it comes from the idea of putting a bar in the way of ships or goods. So to embargo trade is to legally 'bar' or stop goods from moving.