hamstrung

English

Pronunciation

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Adjective

hamstrung (comparative more hamstrung, superlative most hamstrung)

1. (figurative) Restricted as if by being crippled with a hamstring.
   • 2008 March 5, Simon Elegant, “China Blog— The National People's Congress: Rubber Stamp?”, in Time:

     The hamstrung State environmental Protection Administration might get ministerial status.

   • 2015, Charles Hodgson, Carnal Knowledge: A Navel Gazer's Dictionary of Anatomy, Etymology, and Trivia, St. Martin's Griffin, →ISBN, page 202:

     To be hamstrung is to be unable to do what you want to do, as in “the government is hamstrung by the strike.” Literally it is to be crippled because your hamstrings have been cut and you cannot bend your knee. The word ham arose in English […]

   • 2020 April 8, Howard Johnston, “East-ended? When the ECML was at risk”, in Rail, page 66:

     Transport Minister Mulley, with just six months left in office before Harold Wilson's Labour government was toppled by Edward Heath's Conservatives, was hamstrung by inefficient working practices - although thankfully for him he did not have to answer to 2020-style media questioning over why slow decision-making allowed costs to escalate.

Translations

restricted as if with a crippling hamstring

• German: gelähmt (de), lahm gelegt
• Latin: suppernātus

Verb

hamstrung

1. simple past and past participle of hamstring