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🚫 To forbid 💣 To block militarily ⛪ A church ban ⚖️ A legal ban
to interdict

to interdict

3 9.6
To attack or block enemy supply routes to stop their movements
  • verb
  • /ˈɪntərˌdɪkt/
  • Specialized
translation icon : bloquear
  • In the future, stopping WMD proliferation will require the United States to consider interdicting supplies on the high seas or possibly attacking nuclear facilities.

So he sends a commander to the airport to now interdict Team Tripoli when they come and hold them up.

Examples

  • Meanwhile, troops also expanded the security zone around Kabul, in eastern Afghanistan, and continue to interdict insurgents on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    Academic text (2011)

  • In addition, the strategy called for an increase in funding for Department of Defense anti-drug operations, primarily to interdict the smuggling of drugs across the US southern border.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The supply lines must be interdicted.

    Blog text (31)

  • The alternative would be to maximize efforts to control US demand at home while interdicting drugs at the border.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Both the Coast Guard and Navy have increased their ability to patrol littoral waters and to interdict and board suspect vessels.

    Academic text (2005)

  • The war on drugs, on the other hand, presents a more challenging question, since U.S. military forces have been involved in interdicting the illegal drug trade.

    Academic text (2005)

  • South Africa could no longer depend upon the Portuguese to patrol southern Angola, interdicting the flow of PLAN units into Ovamboland.

    Academic text (1993)

  • I have, from the beginning, and do today fully support the objectives of the bombing to interdict men and supplies and hinder the enemy's ability to wage war in the south.

    Path to War (2003)

  • It is unlikely that they will ever be able to completely deny insurgents a haven, kill all their leaders, or interdict all the routes they use to infiltrate the eastern provinces.

    Academic text (2011)

  • The military was ordered to interdict enemy supply routes to prevent reinforcements from reaching the front lines.

Synonyms

to blockade
vsto interdict
1 6.1

To stop someone or something from making progress

uses firepower to destroy or directly impede enemy movements

Antonyms

to facilitate
  • Formal
187 4.9

To make a task or process easier and help it happen

assist
33 1.8

Help given to someone to make a task easier

How Disruptive

to destroy
∞ 1.0
to interdict
  • Specialized
3 9.6
to disrupt
269 4.4
to harass
41 4.4
to impede
35 6.5

Surface Forms

interdict infinitive
interdicted past
interdicted past participle
interdicting present participle
interdicts third person singular

Morphology

interdict = inter + dict

The military sense 'to impede or destroy supply lines' is an extended, specialized sense of the same lexical item and is not transparently predictable from the morphological parts.

Etymology

Interdict comes from the Latin parts inter- 'between' and dicere 'to say', which gives the strong image of 'putting something between' two sides. In military language this became the idea of placing a barrier, so to interdict enemy routes is to block or destroy them to stop movement or supply.