Other forms: hindered, hindering, hinders
To hinder is to get in the way of progress and slow it down. Hinder the investigation, hindered by the weather, hinder rather than help.
It means slowing rather than stopping, which is what separates it from prevent. In law, hindering an officer or perverting the course of justice are related offences. Note hindrance, the noun; and that hinder as an adjective, stressed differently, means at the back — the hinder parts — from the same root as hind and behind.
1verbhinderTo get in the way of progress and slow it down.
“Heavy snow hindered the rescue teams.”
hinder is a slowing down.
Also accepted in games: hamper, obstruct
Old English hindrian comes from hinder, meaning behind. Hind, behind and hindmost come from the same root, so to hinder is to hold back.
Proto-Germanic
*hindrōną
Old English
hindrian
Middle English
hindren
English, today
hinder
Built from
From Middle English hindren, from Old English hindrian, from Proto-Germanic hindrōną, hinderōną (“to hinder”), from Proto-Germanic hinder (“back”) (adverb). Cognate with Dutch hinderen and German hindern, Latin contra (“back, against”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA