stymie
STY-meeverbMeaning to block completely; to leave stuck or stumped
Memory hook STY-MIE: the pig blocks the STY. The giant pig flops across the gate of its sty, and no matter what Farmer Omar tries, he cannot get in. He is stymied.
The last riddle in the book stymied the whole family.
In context Engineers were stymied for months: every design for the bridge failed the wind test, and no one could figure out why.
Similar foil, stump, frustrate, stall
Opposite help, enable, aid
First a golf word of the 1800s: a stymie was a ball lying in the line between another ball and the hole.