obstacle course
Americannoun
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a military training area having obstacles, as hurdles, ditches, and walls, that must be surmounted or crossed in succession.
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Informal. an event, situation, course of action, or the like that presents many challenges or difficulties.
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
But by making the art of comedy its vehicle and having two women steer through the industry’s obstacle course, “Hacks” became a celebration of blasting through hurdles.
From Salon ● May 29, 2026
Advertisements lure patrons to restaurants to celebrate Cinco de Mayo and Easter with buckets of beer and a variety of seafood, and encourage the adventurous to brave a Halloween obstacle course at a Pilates studio.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 22, 2026
Turn right, as the map tells you to do, and you’ll encounter decaying sidewalks, with cracked and buckled concrete that turns a modest uphill walk into an obstacle course.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026
But for the 35 residents of Kapisillit, getting to that care is an obstacle course.
From Barron's ● Feb. 23, 2026
No matter what it was, whether it was the obstacle course or crawling under barbed wire while real bullets were fired over us, we Navajos were just about the best.
From "Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two" by Joseph Bruchac
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.