Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Obstructing or closing natural openings or passages of the body.
  • noun An obstruent medicine or agent.
  • noun Linguistics A sound, such as a stop, fricative, or affricate, that is produced with complete blockage or at least partial constriction of the airflow through the nose or mouth.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Obstructive; impeding.
  • noun Anything that obstructs; especially, anything that blocks up the natural passages of the body.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Causing obstruction; blocking up; hindering.
  • noun Anything that obstructs or closes a passage; esp., that which obstructs natural passages in the body.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun phonetics a consonant sound formed by obstructing the airway, causing turbulence; the generic term of plosive, fricative and affricate

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a consonant that is produced with a partial or complete blockage of the airflow from the lungs through the nose or mouth

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin obstruēns, obstruent-, present participle of obstruere, to obstruct; see obstruct.]

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