to hamstring
1
7.9
- verb
- /ˈhæmstrɪŋ/
:
obstaculizar
- In one corner, there's Ryan Williams of Western Elite, who says state regulators are hamstringing his efforts to make a business from wood recycling.
I don't want to hamstring the artist.
- I don't want to hamstring the artist.
- That's what's really hamstring us right now.
- They're imposing billion dollar fines and prompting complaints that their aim is to hamstring their transatlantic rivals.
- In fact that competes with for for profit companies but isn't hamstrung by a relationship with those investors.
- They are just lucky or they may not be carrying the intergenerational wounds that hamstring so many of us.
- So even though in the average world I'm freakishly wealthy with what I'm trying to build, I feel hamstrung by money all the time.
- And then I feel hamstrung with with, you know, do I do I have a place where I can apply?
- And there the views are going to be hamstrung now too, because notifications and comments are being disabled on all this content.
- So you, I, I did not, I, I would say hamstring myself by having those thoughts now as a scientist now and as a physician now.
- And so those are, those are, I think, unique things we're facing and they, I, I think when we're in a meaning crisis, it sort of hamstrings us.
Examples
-
The new policy may hamstring small businesses by limiting their access to funding.
-
This provision should be deleted entirely, since it further hamstrings the Attorney General and prevents her from conducting a meaningful preliminary investigation to separate serious cases from minor, politically mischievous matters.
Academic text (1998) -
I don't want to hamstring the artist.
-
That's what's really hamstring us right now.
-
As the president cannot pursue foreign policy without at least Congressional acquiescence regarding the budget, this influence hamstrings any president regarding Middle East policy.
Blog text (29) -
This narrow application hamstrings the ability to thoroughly prepare a litigation strategy and even works against the early disposition of a case.
Blog text (10) -
They're imposing billion dollar fines and prompting complaints that their aim is to hamstring their transatlantic rivals.
-
Excessive regulations are hamstringing the company's ability to expand its operations.
-
The lack of resources could hamstring our efforts to complete the project on time.
Synonyms
20
4.0
To limit growth and movement of people or things
20
7.7
To make a person, animal, or thing weak and less able to work
14
5.7
To limit the progress or success of something
11
6.8
To make a person lose the use of a limb, often a leg
9
7.6
To make it difficult for someone or something to act
5
4.9
Injure someone so they cannot use part of their body, often permanently
Antonyms
Compounds
- Specialized
3
2.8
Damage to the muscles at the back of the thigh that causes pain when you move
- Specialized
A strong band at the back of the knee that joins thigh muscles to the leg bone
How Disabling
- US
266
5.3
72
6.3
1
7.9
2
4.9
61
5.1
305
2.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Hamstring now often means to make someone or something powerless or ineffective. Imagine cutting the ham which means 'back of the knee' and its string and you can see why the word describes rules or problems that stop progress.