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Golf was being played in Scotland as early as the 15th century, but it wasn't until the 19th century that the sport really caught on in England and North America. It was also in the 19th century that the word stymie entered English as a noun referring to a golfing situation in which one player's ball lies between another ball and the hole on the putting green, thereby blocking the line of play. Later, stymie came to be used as a verb meaning "to bring into the position of, or impede by, a stymie." By the early 20th century, the verb was being applied in similarly vexing non-golf contexts.
Synonyms
Examples of stymie in a Sentence
Rebecca Boyle, TIME, 8 Apr. 2024
The deployment of 1,000 Kenyan police officers has been stymied by both legal challenges in Nairobi and money.
—Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 4 Apr. 2024
But efforts to find out why the bolts were not replaced after being removed during final assembly at Boeing’s Renton, Wash., plant have been stymied because the company said the paperwork does not exist.
—Lori Aratani, Washington Post, 2 Apr. 2024
Most years, the summer's heat, growing demands and other negative factors are stymied in the other seasons, as precipitation brings relief.
—David Clarey, Journal Sentinel, 28 Mar. 2024
The pharmaceutical industry has warned that second-guessing the FDA's determinations in this case will more broadly disrupt the nation's drug-approval process and stymie private investment in research.
—Ann E. Marimow and Caroline Kitchener The Washington Post, arkansasonline.com, 25 Mar. 2024
There remain some surprisingly simple tasks that continue to stymie L.L.M.s.
—Cal Newport, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2024
The impact of the protests has reverberated throughout the entire region such that it’s now stymied a European Union plan to address climate change that’s been in the works for months.
—Prarthana Prakash, Fortune Europe, 26 Mar. 2024
In recent years, efforts to boost that inventory were stymied by rising costs as well as sharply rising interest rates.
—Alicia Wallace, CNN, 26 Mar. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'stymie.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Stymie.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stymie. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
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stymie
verb
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