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hamper

/ˈhæmpər//ˈhæmpə/·verb
to hinder or slow something down; to get in the way of progress
Fig. 1 — Two gears mesh and run sweetly, quick and quiet, doing exactly what gears are meant to do.
01Definition

To hamper is to make something harder to do — to clog, drag on, or get in the way so that progress is slowed rather than stopped. Thick fog hampers a search; heavy bags hamper a traveller; red tape hampers reform. The word suggests friction and encumbrance: the effort still moves forward, but everything about it now costs more and takes longer because something keeps catching at it from the side.

02In use
  • iDriving snow hampered the rescue, turning an already arduous climb into a crawl.
  • iiOutdated software hampers the team far more than any shortage of talent does.
  • iiiA lack of nurses continues to hamper the very care that more funding was meant to facilitate.
03Collocations
  • seriously hamper
  • hamper efforts
  • hamper progress
  • hampered by
  • hamper the investigation

Family hampered (adjective)

04Relations

=hinder, impede, obstruct, encumber, handicap

≠facilitate, aid, assist

05Compared
PairThe difference
hamper vs impedeweighed down and clogged in the doing → hamper; the way forward obstructed, steps taxed → impede.
hamper vs tampermaking something slower or harder, out in the open → hamper; secretly interfering with something so it no longer works honestly → tamper.
06TOEFL & IELTS

Useful across IELTS problem-solution and TOEFL essays: 'efforts were hampered by a lack of funding'. It is very often passive — 'hampered by X'. Close to 'hinder' and 'impede', but with a flavour of being weighed down or clogged. Note it also means a basket (a picnic hamper), an unrelated word.

07Asked
Does 'hamper' mean a basket?
Yes — that is the noun, and it is a completely separate word from the verb. A hamper is a large covered basket: a laundry hamper for dirty clothes, a picnic hamper for food, a Christmas hamper of gifts. The verb hamper (to hinder) and the noun hamper (a basket) look identical but come from different roots — true homonyms, unrelated in origin.
What does the verb 'hamper' mean?
To make something harder to do — to clog, weigh down, or get in the way so that progress slows without quite stopping. Fog hampers a search; red tape hampers reform; an injury hampers a player. The scene above is the sense exactly: a wrench jammed in the gears, the mechanism grinding forward one tooth at a time, fighting for every turn.
What is the difference between hamper, hinder, and impede?
Close cousins with a shade between them. Hamper suggests being weighed down or entangled from the side, as if shackled. Hinder is to hold back or delay, like a wall in the way. Impede is the most formal, to obstruct a path. Roughly: hamper drags at you, hinder holds you back, impede blocks the road.
Is 'hamper' usually passive?
Very often, yes — 'hampered by' is its most common frame: 'the rescue was hampered by bad weather', 'efforts were hampered by a lack of funds'. The passive suits the meaning, since hampering is something done to an effort by an outside obstacle. Naming the obstacle after 'by' is the standard, exam-ready pattern.
Where do the two meanings of hamper come from?
From different places, which is why they share nothing but spelling. The verb 'to hamper' is Middle English, probably related to shackling or entangling. The basket 'hamper' comes through Old French hanapier, a case for holding a goblet (hanap). Two separate words drifted into the same shape — a coincidence of spelling, not a shared meaning.
Is 'hamper' formal enough for essays?
Yes — it is a strong, slightly formal verb for problem-solution writing: 'development was hampered by poor infrastructure'. It reads a notch above 'slowed down' and pairs naturally with efforts, progress, growth, and recovery. Keep it for things being obstructed; for a basket, context makes the noun sense obvious and unmistakable.