Other forms: obstructed, obstructing, obstructs
To obstruct is to block a path, view or process. Obstruct the road, obstruct justice, an obstructed view.
The physical sense is plain. Obstructing a police officer and obstructing the course of justice are both offences, and the second is serious. In sport, obstruction is a foul in several games. An obstructed view is the cheap seat behind a pillar. Note that the Latin means built up against, from struere, which also gives structure.
1verbobstructTo block a path, view or process.
“A fallen tree obstructed the road, so we had to turn back.”
obstruct is a blocking.
Latin obstruere is ob, against, plus struere, to pile up or build. Structure, construct and destroy come from the same building.
Proto-Indo-European
*strew-
English, today
obstruct
Built from
From Latin - past participle stem obstructus (“blocked up”), from verb obstruere, from ob (“against”) + struere (“pile up, build”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA