noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
insuperable obstacles
▪ There were insuperable obstacles, and the plan was abandoned.
obstacle course
obstacle race
present an obstacle (=cause a problem that is difficult to deal with or solve)
▪ The lack of money presented a massive obstacle.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
big
▪ Cooling the water is the biggest obstacle.
▪ Perhaps his biggest obstacle has been his instrument -- the flute, never taken seriously as a jazz instrument.
▪ But disabled people believe the biggest obstacles they face are mental ones-the prejudices and thoughtlessness of able-bodied people.
▪ I also knew that one of the big obstacles to overcome would be the old conditioning.
▪ Yet the biggest obstacle is locating a suitable venue for this gargantuan Christmas dinner.
▪ My biggest obstacle, though, was Syngman Rhee.
▪ Although in fairness their biggest obstacle wasn't acting live but making the most of flawed storylines.
▪ Hardie has one big obstacle: The five big record labels haven't agreed to let him to sell their music.
bureaucratic
▪ But there are strings attached, and a fresh bureaucratic and political obstacle course lies ahead.
▪ Financial, technological and bureaucratic obstacles would remain.
chief
▪ The chief obstacles to Ecotopia lie in the economic, political, cultural and ideological levels.
▪ Increasingly, Mr Kabila's duplicity and intransigence were seen by all as the chief obstacle to any such agreement.
formidable
▪ When it came to assembling facts and details, the system was a formidable obstacle.
▪ To be sure, formidable obstacles lie ahead for advocates of a merger.
▪ Selim had formidable obstacles to overcome, however, in modernising the archaic structure of the Ottoman empire.
▪ The stairs were a formidable obstacle to son Michael, also, since we lived in a bungalow.
▪ The Pennines presented the most formidable obstacles of all to the canals, but even they were successfully overcome.
further
▪ This is likely to provide a further obstacle to clear and stable objectives for rail transport.
great
▪ The greatest obstacle to the progress of the Unity Campaign was the opposition of the Labour Party.
▪ A greater obstacle may be Clinton himself.
▪ Displaced people from rural areas face even greater obstacles.
▪ Labor-Management Cooperation Many public managers believe that unions are the greatest obstacle standing in the way of entrepreneurial government.
▪ Rather than finance, the greatest obstacle he faces is his attitude.
▪ It discovered that social problems-issues of motivation, attitude, and expectations-were a greater obstacle than lack of programs.
▪ Checking the factual accuracy of the new social security information items proved to be a greater obstacle than usual.
▪ The lack of a Leninist party constitutes the greatest single obstacle to the victory of the world revolution.
legal
▪ SunSelect says its lawyers are satisfied there are no legal obstacles to selling the stuff.
▪ This ambitious project faces a major legal obstacle.
▪ The question which serves as a starting-point is why there should be legal obstacles to the recognition of the transsexual's change.
main
▪ While the implacable opposition of Gen Aoun is the main obstacle in his path, there are plenty of other difficulties.
▪ The main obstacle was a battle-tested Houston team that never blinked, even after nearly blowing a 22-point lead.
▪ It was widely thought that discussions over his release had been the main obstacle in the talks between Meyer and Ramaphosa.
▪ The main obstacle was the steep Crooksbury Hill after 19 miles, with the Punchbowl being a descent.
▪ The main obstacles in this area lay in analysing and approaching suitable targets.
▪ The main obstacle now is the United Nations.
▪ Safety has been the main obstacle.
▪ The main obstacle to the widespread use of abatement techniques is the significant and variable national costs which are incurred.
major
▪ I think they will find that most authorities will agree that it has proved a major obstacle but by no means the only one.
▪ Another major obstacle is the fair circuit and its impact on the higher quality stables.
▪ A major obstacle to understanding is the use of technical jargon which is unintelligible to the buyer.
▪ There still are major obstacles ahead, such as trips to Georgetown and Villanova.
▪ The difference in regional house prices acts as a major obstacle to mobility of labour.
▪ The lack of money could also be a major obstacle.
▪ It is often suggested that the issue of the ordination of women is a major obstacle to progress.
▪ Is there not, furthermore, a major obstacle in the question of language?
political
▪ But there are strings attached, and a fresh bureaucratic and political obstacle course lies ahead.
▪ Whoever wins, their plans to boost the economy will face political obstacles and will not have an instant effect.
▪ She is no ordinary political obstacle.
▪ Its bids are always fronted by local partners who know their way around the political and regulatory obstacles.
▪ The economic case is irresistible, but the political obstacles are legion.
real
▪ Rather the reason lies in very real obstacles to the discovery of what happened.
▪ The real obstacle to these programs is that the resources they require are limited by our political system.
▪ But cluster sampling does have value when distance may provide real obstacles to conducting enquiries.
▪ Getting people to care-enough to bother doing some-thing-seems to be the real obstacle.
serious
▪ I re-emphasise that the policy of settlements in the occupied territories is a serious obstacle to a peace settlement.
▪ Obstacles and Inertia Despite all the assets just outlined, the rejuvenated university has had to face serious obstacles.
▪ The cognitive obstacles in the way of police investigations Detectives who seek to establish what happened come up against serious cognitive obstacles.
▪ Despite serious technical obstacles, space agency officials are considering whether to launch a Jupiter space probe powered entirely by sunlight.
▪ As a consequence there are, at present, serious obstacles to analysing directly the functional organization of the human brain.
▪ The only serious potential obstacle to the plan foreseen at the time was litigation by employer and union groups.
▪ The lack of sharp focus in this field is a serious obstacle to comparison of analyses and to proper explanation.
▪ As with other orchestras, including the San Diego Symphony, expansion produced serious financial obstacles.
similar
▪ Whatever their nature or their style, they mostly faced similar obstacles.
technical
▪ For the system to work properly, several practical and technical obstacles will need to be overcome over the next 12 months.
▪ Despite serious technical obstacles, space agency officials are considering whether to launch a Jupiter space probe powered entirely by sunlight.
▪ The opportunities have been pervasive, given the declining regulatory and technical obstacles to the internationalisation of firms' activities.
▪ Still, there are technical obstacles to be overcome before a major shift from film to digital media can occur.
▪ Environmental concentration of legionellae might have been underestimated because of technical obstacles to detection.
▪ The technical obstacle relates to ring-fencing of local government money.
■ NOUN
course
▪ But there are strings attached, and a fresh bureaucratic and political obstacle course lies ahead.
▪ With fatigued muscles, we endured ruck marches, long runs and obstacle courses.
▪ The simplest involves racing down a mountain, while the most complicated requires you to perform tricks on an obstacle course.
▪ The Velcro obstacle course will be 40 feet of trouble for those trying to get through it.
▪ The parents will enjoy watching their children having fun completing the obstacle course particularly if there are a number of novelty items.
▪ There are mazes, obstacle courses, visual recognition games, trial-and-error experiments, arcade-style shooting games.
▪ The rules to make it through the obstacle course of a day's commute to school are carefully laid out.
▪ Our picture shows John in full training before surveying the camp obstacle course.
race
▪ Visits, though immensely enjoyable, had elements of both the obstacle race and the assault course.
▪ It was like an obstacle race.
■ VERB
avoid
▪ Perhaps a scientist suggests that in some way the bat's ears are involved in its ability to avoid obstacles.
▪ This time it is found that the ability of the bats to avoid obstacles is considerably impaired.
▪ They hunt at night, and can not use light to help them find prey and avoid obstacles.
▪ Their job isn't to find the way, but to avoid the obstacles and stop at hazards such as road junctions.
▪ I somehow avoided all of the obstacles and my fingers soon touched one of the wooden spokes.
become
▪ However, bow shocks become wrapped around blunt obstacles and become much weaker the further away they are from the obstacle head.
▪ Insuring the bonus, now expected to be $ 1. 8 million, has become an obstacle.
▪ From the 1970s onwards, the cold war increasingly became an obstacle to economic and political stability.
▪ The guerrilla strategy advanced by Castroism became one of the obstacles in the fight for the construction of a revolutionary leadership.
clear
▪ Long-time leader Mweenish would almost certainly have held on had he cleared the final obstacle without error.
▪ For Fleet, which has recently made big acquisitions, the move clears an obstacle in integrating its multi-state operations.
▪ He has cleared the first obstacle cleanly but knows others will present greater problems.
create
▪ Britain had created obstacles to co-operation.
encounter
▪ The nuclear programme, because of its sudden appearance and because of the passions it arouses, has encountered its greatest obstacle in people.
▪ Here, some five hundred years ago, the river encountered an obstacle that caused it to split into two channels.
▪ As already noted, the attempt was a qualified success and encountered serious obstacles.
▪ When parents encounter this obstacle, they finally get off the dime and have their kids vaccinated.
face
▪ Whoever wins, their plans to boost the economy will face political obstacles and will not have an instant effect.
▪ Obstacles and Inertia Despite all the assets just outlined, the rejuvenated university has had to face serious obstacles.
▪ Displaced people from rural areas face even greater obstacles.
▪ Satisfaction comes not simply from successes but also from making choices, facing challenges and overcoming obstacles.
▪ This ambitious project faces a major legal obstacle.
▪ Grappling with the many varied problems of the nineteenth century, it tackled innumerable tasks and faced innumerable obstacles.
▪ Black and other minority citizens on whom the Democrats were counting faced unusual obstacles in exercising their democratic rights.
▪ Our team has faced all kinds of obstacles.
overcome
▪ We will try to overcome both these obstacles together.
▪ Satisfaction comes not simply from successes but also from making choices, facing challenges and overcoming obstacles.
▪ Miss Ashley had in fact, except as regards changing her birth certificate, overcome all these obstacles to acceptance.
▪ She overcomes the twin obstacles of race and gender through her twin attributes of will and skill.
▪ But it is bound to stimulate the evolution of formal procedures for overcoming the obstacles met by investigators.
▪ As we overcame obstacle after obstacle, our pride grew.
▪ Do you enjoy finding solutions to overcome obstacles?
▪ With man effort not often matched in the animal kingdom, he overcame that considerable obstacle.
place
▪ Karen and I went out of our way to place obstacles in our path.
▪ One resident holding out, however perversely, could place unpleasant obstacles in the way of completing the project.
▪ An oesophageal tube was placed just above the obstacle under fluoroscopic guidance to drain the saliva.
▪ Now she placed the obstacle of her nose between Anwar and Changez so that neither could get at the other.
present
▪ Even in the atonal phase, before he adopted serialism, he presented obstacles for his listeners.
▪ Although the company hopes for approval this month, Mr Rozells pointed out that the government shutdown presents an obstacle.
▪ However, circling before the horse is presented at the obstacle is not penalised - unlike showjumping.
prove
▪ I think they will find that most authorities will agree that it has proved a major obstacle but by no means the only one.
▪ As eggplant spread west, though, bitterness proved an obstacle to acceptance.
▪ While Haile Selassie was backed by the United States this proved no obstacle.
put
▪ Some cloners think Sun regrets making previous Sparcstations too easy to knock off so it's putting some obstacles in the way.
▪ We have to put division and obstacles, prejudice and barriers in the past.
▪ Another way of approaching the attack on the ball is to put a small obstacle in the way of the downswing.
▪ His father for his part would not then put any obstacle in his son's way.
▪ Stark gave Izzard the warmest of welcomes and seems to have put no obstacle in the way of a biography.
remain
▪ The only remaining obstacles are located at Wester Hailes, a residential development on the western outskirts of Edinburgh.
▪ That condition remains the key obstacle.
▪ However, qualifications remained a major obstacle.
▪ In the province of Vercelli the shortage of labour therefore remained a serious obstacle to agricultural development.
remove
▪ But the appointment of a receiver at Birmingham has removed any obstacle.
▪ They must learn how to identify and remove obstacles to performance.
▪ In the past, other things being equal, improvement in a man's income removed obstacles to marriage.
▪ Instead of having managers and supervisors try to control employee behavior, have them focus on removing obstacles to employee performance.
▪ As soon as the blindfold is applied, remove the obstacles and watch the children going over imaginary items.
▪ The adaptation work should help to overcome or remove any obstacles that prevent you from enjoying the use of your present facilities.
▪ A fail-safe system triggered a red signal, giving the driver of the train time to stop and remove the obstacle.
▪ The crew also carries out routine river checks and removes obstacles which may be dangerous.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ an obstacle in the road
▪ She had to overcome a lot of obstacles to finally make it to drama college.
▪ The deal should go through, but there are several legal obstacles to overcome first.
▪ The greatest obstacle to economic progress has been mass unemployment.
▪ The lack of money is a serious obstacle that could prevent the project from succeeding.
▪ There's no reason why the fact of being a parent should be an obstacle to women's career progression.
▪ There are a number of obstacles in the way of a lasting peace settlement.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ As he progressed there is little doubt that he would have found his path increasingly hampered by obstacles.
▪ But most entrepreneurial managers tell us that unions have not been their primary obstacle.
▪ But the man was a romantic and probably saw Steve as an obstacle he might have to overcome.
▪ Getting people to care-enough to bother doing some-thing-seems to be the real obstacle.
▪ Such abuse of power is not just a problem for women, it is potentially an obstacle to accomplishing the mission.
▪ The main obstacle was the steep Crooksbury Hill after 19 miles, with the Punchbowl being a descent.
▪ There still are major obstacles ahead, such as trips to Georgetown and Villanova.
▪ Troops may be moved over intervening models, buildings, terrain and any other obstacles or scenery.