From the meaning in golf (where the stymie ball blocks the other ball from "seeing" the hole), perhaps from Scots stymie, stimie (“person with poor eyesight”), from Scots stime (“the least bit”). Or from Scots styme (“tiny bit, glimmer”) as in se nocht ane styme (“not to see a glimmer (of something)”). If so, it is a doublet of stime.
Meanings
A situation where an opponent's ball is directly in the way of one's own ball and the hole, on the putting green (abolished 1952).
(broadly) An obstacle or obstruction.
Mary, will you be mine? Shall we go round together? Will you fix up a match with me on the links of life which shall end only when the Grim Reaper lays us both a stymie? 1922, P. G. Wodehouse, The Clicking of Cuthbert:
From the meaning in golf (where the stymie ball blocks the other ball from "seeing" the hole), perhaps from Scots stymie, stimie (“person with poor eyesight”), from Scots stime (“the least bit”). Or from Scots styme (“tiny bit, glimmer”) as in se nocht ane styme (“not to see a glimmer (of something)”). If so, it is a doublet of stime.
Meanings
To thwart or stump; to cause to fail or to leave hopelessly puzzled, confused, or stuck.
If writing dates has you stymied at times, it is probably for one of two reasons. https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-write-dates/
Since Israel’s ground war began in Gaza over a year and a half ago, it has followed a consistent pattern of raiding key militant strongholds and then withdrawing forces, alongside periodic stymieing of food aid. 2025 May 20, Dina Kraft, “Goals of Israel’s renewed Gaza offensive are unclear, even to Israelis”, in The Christian Science Monitor:
It constrained governments, businesses and labour unions to collaborate in planning increased rates of output and the conditions likely to facilitate them. And above all, it blocked any return to the temptations that had so stymied the inter-war economy: under-production, mutually destructive protectionism, and a collapse of trade. 2005, Tony Judt, “The Rehabilitation of Europe”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN:
I was making such a drama in my head it was stymieing me. 2007 January 21, Joyce Cohen, “Beauty in the Eye of the Renter”, in New York Times:
For all his faults and grandstanding, however, Prescott genuinely cared - and his ambitious plans for tram schemes and railway extensions were stymied by lack of support from Downing Street. 2024 January 10, Christian Wolmar, “A time for change? ... just as it was back in issue 262”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 60:
They had lost the key, and the lock stymied the first three locksmiths they called.
In populations that have “burst” and “path” structures, for example, individuals can never occupy positions in the graph that their ancestors held. Those structures stymie evolution by denying advantageous mutations any chance to take over a population. 2018 July 1, John Rennie, “This Mutation Math Shows How Life Keeps on Evolving”, in Wired:
To bring into the position of, or impede by, a stymie.
ga caoch (to thwart or stump) · el ματαιώνω (to thwart or stump) · cmn 阻礙 /阻碍 (to thwart or stump) · de lahmlegen (to thwart or stump) · pl krzyżować (to thwart or stump) · fr obstruer (to thwart or stump) · gl obstaculizar (to thwart or stump) · ca contrariar (to thwart or stump) · gl obstruír (to thwart or stump) · nn setje i ei vanskeleg stilling (to thwart or stump) · nl belemmeren (to thwart or stump) · sh zapriječiti (to thwart or stump) · ja 追い詰める (to thwart or stump) · pt obstruir (to thwart or stump) · ru ста́вить в тупи́к (to thwart or stump) · pt impedir (to thwart or stump) · it ostruire (to thwart or stump) · pl pokrzyżować (to thwart or stump) · hu meghiúsít (to thwart or stump) · sh onemogućavati (to thwart or stump) · ca bloquejar (to thwart or stump) · ca empallegar (to thwart or stump) · fr mettre en échec (to thwart or stump) · nl ten val brengen (to thwart or stump) · ca destorbar (to thwart or stump) · ru загна́ть в у́гол (to thwart or stump) · pl przeszkadzać (to thwart or stump) · gl atrancar (to thwart or stump) · ga déan idirluí ar (to thwart or stump) · it ostacolare (to thwart or stump) · ru загоня́ть в у́гол (to thwart or stump) · pl przeszkodzić (to thwart or stump) · ru поста́вить в тупи́к (to thwart or stump) · mi kaiwaenga (to thwart or stump) · nn dekkje (to thwart or stump) · pl utrudniać (to thwart or stump) · es obstaculizar (to thwart or stump) · fi nujertaa (to thwart or stump) · no sette i en vanskelig stilling (to thwart or stump) · no dekke (to thwart or stump) · nl hinderen (to thwart or stump) · pl utrudnić (to thwart or stump) · ca travar (to thwart or stump) · it intrigare (to thwart or stump) · it mettere in ginocchio (to thwart or stump) · fi lannistaa (to thwart or stump) · sh zaprečiti (to thwart or stump)