roadblock
Americannoun
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an obstruction placed across a road, especially of barricades or police cars, for halting or hindering traffic, as to facilitate the capture of a pursued car or inspection for safety violations.
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an obstruction on a road, as a fallen tree or a pile of fallen rocks.
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a hastily built barricade, as of barbed wire, erected across a road to hold up the advance of an enemy.
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an action, condition, etc., that obstructs progress toward an objective.
Nationalism is a roadblock to European unity.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a barrier set up across a road by the police or military, in order to stop a fugitive, inspect traffic, etc
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a difficulty or obstacle to progress
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of roadblock
Explanation
A literal roadblock is a barricade or obstruction that's meant to block traffic. A figurative roadblock is any situation you encounter that makes it difficult or impossible to do what you want or need to do. When a driver encounters a roadblock, she has to stop and go back, or to take a detour and use a different route. This sort of roadblock might be set up to divert cars away from construction or an accident. Other roadblocks are obstructions to progress, like a lawsuit that halts construction on a building or the high cost of something: "The price of converting to a solar water heater was a roadblock to our plans."
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.
See Examples For:
But there’s no constitutional roadblock to anti-vote-betting laws, and they can serve some salutary purposes.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
Police Commissioner Ahmed Sanusi accused the men of abandoning their official posts to set up the unauthorised roadblock.
From BBC ● Jul. 21, 2026
The National Guard set up a roadblock complete with an armed Humvee for over a month, just a block away from where Jaimes and so many others celebrated.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2026
The company cleared a major roadblock to its IPO earlier this week, when it won a legal fight with its co-founder turned Altman foe Elon Musk.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
They get only seven miles before coming to a dead halt at a Union roadblock outside Jetersville.
From "Lincoln's Last Days: The Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever" by Bill O'Reilly
When makeshift roadblocks appeared, Minneapolis urged residents to stop erecting them, citing the need for emergency access, fire response, and roadways open for all.
From Slate ● Jul. 27, 2026
However, they added the incident remained live and roadblocks would remain in place until the firefighting operation was completed.
From BBC ● Jul. 19, 2026
The couple faced some other roadblocks along the way.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026
No protest roadblocks remained standing in Bolivia on Tuesday, the government said, as it deployed the army to quell weeks-long demonstrations that had throttled roads nationwide.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
Under the auspices of the man I had boarded the bus with, I was able to pass some of the roadblocks for free.
From "A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier" by Ishmael Beah
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.
