Both Uses of
impede
in
The Mill on the Floss
- Tom knew that the affair his uncle had to speak of was not urgent; Mr. Deane was too shrewd and practical a man to allow either his reminiscences or his snuff to impede the progress of trade.†
Chpt 6.5 *
- She had a way of not assenting at once to the observations current in good society, and of saying that she didn't know whether those observations were true or not, which gave her an air of gaucherie, and impeded the even flow of conversation; but it is a fact capable of an amiable interpretation that ladies are not the worst disposed toward a new acquaintance of their own sex because she has points of inferiority.†
Chpt 6.6
Definition:
-
(impede) create difficulty so as to slow or prevent (something)