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When Should You Use embargo?
English speakers got embargo—both the word and the concept, it seems—from the Spanish in the early 17th century. The word first referred specifically to a government order prohibiting commercial ships from entering or leaving that country’s ports. (The Spanish word comes from embargar, “to bar.”) By the middle of the 17th century embargo was being used more broadly to refer to any government order that limits trade in some way. Today, the word is applied more broadly still to refer to various prohibitions. Publishers, for example, often place an embargo on a book to prevent stores from selling it before its official release date. And in Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion, Anne Elliot says “I lay no embargo on anybody's words.” We feel similarly.
Synonyms
Examples of embargo in a Sentence
Daniel Markind, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
Harris has been interrupted at campaign stops and rallies across the country by demonstrators calling on her to break with President Joe Biden and support an arms embargo on Israel.
—By Nik Popli/east Lansing, Mich., TIME, 4 Nov. 2024
Sean Hollister, The Verge, 11 Oct. 2024
Michael Teo Van Runkle The Chevy Equinox EV is an even newer EV than the Fiat 500e—first drives were embargoed until last week.
—Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica, 3 June 2024
See all Example Sentences for embargo 
Dictionary Entries Near embargo
Cite this Entry
“Embargo.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embargo. Accessed 22 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationLegal Definition
embargo
1 of 2 noun
embargo
2 of 2 transitive verbNoun
Spanish, from embargar to bar
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