English edit

Etymology edit

de- +‎ obstruct

Verb edit

deobstruct (third-person singular simple present deobstructs, present participle deobstructing, simple past and past participle deobstructed)

  1. (chiefly medicine) To clear (something) of obstructions.[1]
    Synonym: unblock
    • 1664, Jeremy Taylor, A Dissuasive from Popery to the People of Ireland[2], Dublin: John Crooke, Preface to the Reader:
      [] we humbly desire of God [] [that] he will be pleas’d to convey to them [the people of Ireland] the notices of their danger, and their sin, and to deobstruct the passages of necessary truth to them,
    • 1732, John Arbuthnot, Practical Rules of Diet[3], London: J. Tonson, Chapter 1, section 19, p. 274:
      [] such as carry off the Foeces and Mucus, deobstruct the Mouths of the Lacteals, so as the Chyle may have a free Passage into the Blood.
    • 1850, Edward Tilt, chapter 5, in On Diseases of Menstruation and Ovarian Inflammation[4], London: John Churchill, page 144:
      [] he exhibited an instrument which he had invented for deobstructing the Fallopian tubes in such cases.

Related terms edit

References edit

  1. ^ Samuel Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language, London, 1755: “DEOBSTRUCT, [] To clear from impediments; to free from such things as hinder a passage.”[1]

Anagrams edit