obstructive

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

English obstruct

Proto-Indo-European *-wós

Proto-Indo-European *-iHwósder.

Latin -īvus

Old French -ifbor.

Middle English -yf

English -ive

English obstructive

From obstruct + -ive.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əbˈstɹʌk.tɪv/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /əbˈstɹʌk.tɪv/, /ɑbˈstɹʌk.tɪv/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Adjective

obstructive (comparative more obstructive, superlative most obstructive)

1. Causing obstructions.

   I wanted to see his report on me, but my manager was being obstructive.

   • 1911, James George Frazer, chapter V, in Taboo and the Perils of the Soul (The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion; II), third edition, London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, page 310:

     The obstructive tendency attributed to the knot in spiritual matters appears in a Swiss superstition that if, in sewing a corpse into its shroud, you make a knot on the thread, it will hinder the soul of the deceased on its passage to eternity.

Derived terms

• antiobstructive
• chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
• deobstructive
• nonobstructive
• obstructively
• obstructiveness
• obstructivism
• postobstructive
• unobstructive

Translations

causing obstructions

• Bulgarian: пречещ (bg) (prečešt), затрудняващ (bg) (zatrudnjavašt)
• Catalan: obstructiu (ca)
• French: obstructif (fr)
• Greek: κωλυσιεργικός (el) (kolysiergikós), καταιγιστικός (el) (kataigistikós)
• Hindi: विघ्नकारी (hi) (vighnakārī)
• Irish: toirmeascach
• Italian: ostruttivo, ostrusivo (it)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: obstruktiv

  Nynorsk: obstruktiv

• Occitan: obstructiu
• Portuguese: obstrutivo
• Romanian: obstructiv (ro)
• Swedish: obstruktiv (sv)

Noun

obstructive (plural obstructives)

1. One who obstructs something.