hamstrung

1. (figurative, nonstandard, dialectal) Restricted as if by being crippled with a hamstring; hamstringed.Examples: "The hamstrung State environmental Protection Administration might get ministerial status."; "To be hamstrung is to be unable to do what you want to do, as in “the government is hamstrung by the strike.” Literally it is to be crippled because your hamstrings have been cut and you cannot bend your knee. The word ham arose in English […]"; "Transport Minister Mulley, with just six months left in office before Harold Wilson's Labour government was toppled by Edward Heath's Conservatives, was hamstrung by inefficient working practices - although thankfully for him he did not have to answer to 2020-style media questioning over why slow decision-making allowed costs to escalate."dialectalfigurativelynonstandard