slow, delay, check, stop, block, thwart. See prevent.
Antonyms
advance, encourage.
Examples from the web for impede
Floating row cover is a lightweight cloth that is laid on top of crops to impede pests.
Sunspots are visible because the bundled field lines impede the flow of convection.
Too often, however, longstanding suspicions on both sides of the relationship impede constructive collaboration.
It's the structures of our world that impede this process, structures that could be organized differently.
Despite their good intentions, affirmative action laws impede progress.
Prose speeds the eye onwards, while poems resist-and purposely impede- that forward movement.
He believed that regulation would only impede these markets, and that they should continue to be self-regulated.
Sitting would impede flow, using muscles promotes it.
Opinions that might impede medical research aimed at improving human health and welfare do not deserve consideration.
But such is no major deterrent to me, though it does impede my attempts to publish in conventional literature, for example.
British Dictionary definitions for impede
impede
/ɪmˈpiːd/
verb
1.
(transitive) to restrict or retard in action, progress, etc; hinder; obstruct
Derived Forms
impeder, noun impedingly, adverb
Word Origin
C17: from Latin impedīre to hinder, literally: shackle the feet, from pēs foot
Word Origin and History for impede
v.
c.1600, back-formation from impediment, or else from Latin impedire "impede, be in the way, hinder, detain," literally "to shackle the feet" (see impediment). Related: Impeded; impedes; impeding.