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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
stumbling block
noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ In the autumn of 1987, Conran ran into a potentially more serious stumbling block to his plans.
▪ It is still foolishness and a stumbling block.
▪ Only rarely is the lack of sufficient minimum capability a real stumbling block to change.
▪ The stumbling block is a case challenging the constitutionality of the new law.
▪ They needed the scrupulous professional integrity which nearly proved such a stumbling block to them in this case.
Wiktionary
stumbling block

alt. (context idiomatic English) A hindrance, obstacle or impediment. n. (context idiomatic English) A hindrance, obstacle or impediment.

WordNet
stumbling block

n. any obstacle or impediment

Wikipedia
Stumbling block

A stumbling block or scandal in the Bible is a metaphor for a behavior or attitude that leads another to sin.

Stumbling block (disambiguation)

A stumbling block is a behavior or attitude that leads another to sin.

Stumbling block may also refer to:

  • Stumbling block (monument), a small, cobblestone-sized memorial for a single victim of Nazism
  • Stumbling block (philosophy), an object, thing, action or situation that causes an obstruction
  • an obstacle

Usage examples of "stumbling block".

Oswald Brunies, the strutting, candy-sucking teacher -- a monument will be erected to him -- to him with magnifying glass on elastic, with sticky bag in sticky coat pocket, to him who collected big stones and little stones, rare pebbles, preferably mica gneiss -- muscovy biotite -- quartz, feldspar, and hornblende, who picked up pebbles, examined them, rejected or kept them, to him the Big Playground of the Conradinum was not an abrasive stumbling block but a lasting invitation to scratch about with the tip of his shoe after nine rooster steps.

Perhaps all along it was only to present a stumbling block to our marriage.

They were the stumbling block, and not only for Clarke but for every esper in the Branch.

In fact, the only possible stumbling block I can still see is right here on Roye, and its Honest Silas Thayer.

In fact, the only possible stumbling block I can still see is right here on Roye, and it's Honest Silas Thayer.

He ran into a stumbling block at Noral, and had to wait for a change of shifts, before a sympathetic engineer cut the red tape to clear him.

But for that little matter of a civil war on Barrayar-that tiny stumbling block-that stone-paper wraps stone .

It quickly became clear to both sides that only hand-to-hand fighting was going to decide the fate of this stumbling block.