bottleneck

Plural: bottlenecks

Noun

• a narrowing that reduces the flow through a channel
• the narrow part of a bottle near the top
• The narrow portion that forms the pouring spout of a bottle; the neck of a bottle.
• The narrow portion that forms the pouring spout of a bottle; the neck of a bottle.
• A portion of a bottleneck placed on the finger and used as a guitar slide.
• In traffic, any narrowing of the road, especially resulting in a delay.
• The part of a process that is too slow or cumbersome.

Verb

• slow down or impede by creating an obstruction
  • "His laziness has bottlenecked our efforts to reform the system"
• become narrow, like a bottleneck
  • "Right by the bridge, the road bottlenecks"
• To slow by causing a bottleneck.
• To form a bottleneck.

Examples

• It is easy to create entries; processing the paperwork is the bottleneck.
• The bottleneck in this computer program is the inefficient sorting process; we should replace it with a faster one.
• The merge bottlenecked the traffic every morning.
• The traffic bottlenecked at the merge every morning.

Synonyms

chokepoint, constriction