obstacle course
Americannoun
-
obstacle courses
plural
-
a military training area having obstacles, as hurdles, ditches, and walls, that must be surmounted or crossed in succession.
-
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.
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
It was an obstacle course to choose my words wisely and put Paul at ease about my intentions.
From Salon ● May 23, 2025
In the eat-in area of the kitchen, I spent over an hour constructing an elaborate obstacle course and placed Sir Fig Newton’s food dish at the end.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
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.
