stymie

English

Alternative forms

• stimy, stymy

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA: /ˈstaɪmi/
• Rhymes: -aɪmi

Noun

stymie (plural stymies)

1. An obstacle or obstruction.
2. (golf) A situation where an opponent's ball is directly in the way of one's own ball and the hole, on the putting green.

Verb

stymie (third-person singular simple present stymies, present participle stymieing, simple past and past participle stymied)

1. To thwart or stump; to cause to fail or to leave hopelessly puzzled, confused, or stuck.

   They had lost the key, and the lock stymied the first three locksmiths they called.

   • 2007 January 21, Joyce Cohen, “Beauty in the Eye of the Renter”, New York Times:

     I was making such a drama in my head it was stymieing me.

Translations

to thwart or stump

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 阻礙 (cmn), 阻碍 (cmn) (zǔ'ài)

• Dutch: belemmeren (nl), ten val brengen (nl), hinderen (nl)
• Finnish: nujertaa (fi), lannistaa (fi)
• French: obstruer (fr), mettre en échec (fr)
• German: lahmlegen (de)
• Hungarian: meghiúsít (hu)
• Italian: ostacolare (it), ostruire (it)
• Japanese: 追い詰める (ja) (おいつめる, oitsumeru)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: dekke (no), sette i en vanskelig stilling

  Nynorsk: dekkje (nn), setje i ei vanskeleg stilling

• Russian: загонять в угол (ru) (zagonját' v úgol) impf., загнать в угол (ru) (zagnát' v úgol) pf., ставить в тупик (ru) (stávit' v tupík) impf., поставить в тупик (ru) (postávit' v tupík) pf.