What does atasco in Spanish mean?

What is the meaning of the word atasco in Spanish? The article explains the full meaning, pronunciation along with bilingual examples and instructions on how to use atasco in Spanish.

The word atasco in Spanish means jam, bottleneck, obstruction, blockage, block, clog, plug, hold up, hold back, slow down, get stuck, get bog down, draw a blank, get stuck, get bogged down. To learn more, please see the details below.

Listen to pronunciation

Meaning of the word atasco

jam, bottleneck

nombre masculino (tapón de tráfico) (traffic)

(noun: Refers to person, place, thing, quality, etc.)
He llegado con retraso porque había un gran atasco.
I'm running late because there was a huge jam (or: bottleneck).

obstruction

nombre masculino (impedimento)

(noun: Refers to person, place, thing, quality, etc.)
Pusieron unas piedras en la carretera como un atasco al tráfico.
They placed a few rocks on the road as an obstruction to traffic.

blockage

nombre masculino (obstrucción)

(noun: Refers to person, place, thing, quality, etc.)
El agua no fluye por el atasco del sedimento en la tubería.
The water isn't flowing due to the sediment blockage in the pipes.

block, clog, plug

verbo transitivo (obstruir)

(transitive verb: Verb taking a direct object--for example, "Say something." "She found the cat.")
El hombre atascó el desagüe de la fuente con comida.
ⓘEsta oración no es una traducción de la original. Kitchen grease will often block (or: clog) a drain.

hold up, hold back, slow down

verbo transitivo (obstaculizar) (delay)

(phrasal verb, transitive, separable: Verb with adverb(s) or preposition(s), having special meaning, divisible--for example, "call off" [=cancel], "call the game off," "call off the game.")
El funcionario atascaba los informes del ayuntamiento para poder ganar tiempo y no concederle el permiso.
The civil servant was holding up the reports from the city council to buy time and not grant him the permit.

get stuck, get bog down

verbo pronominal (quedarse varado) (impossible to move)

(verbal expression: Phrase with special meaning functioning as verb--for example, "put their heads together," "come to an end.")
Pedro se atascó en la arena y no supo sacar el coche.
Pedro got stuck (or: bogged down) in the sand and didn't know how to get his car out.

draw a blank

verbo pronominal (bloquearse en un discurso) (forget what to say)

(verbal expression: Phrase with special meaning functioning as verb--for example, "put their heads together," "come to an end.")
Brenda se atascó en mitad de la exposición y no supo seguir con su disertación.
Brenda drew a blank halfway into her presentation and couldn't continue the lecture.

get stuck, get bogged down

verbo pronominal (no poder seguir)

Federico se atascó en tercero de medicina y tuvo que dejar los estudios.
Frederick got stuck (or: bogged down) in his third year of medical school and had to quit his studies.

Let's learn Spanish

So now that you know more about the meaning of atasco in Spanish, you can learn how to use them through selected examples and how to read them. And remember to learn the related words that we suggest. Our website is constantly updating with new words and new examples so you can look up the meanings of other words you don't know in Spanish.

Do you know about Spanish

Spanish (español), also known as Castilla, is a language of the Iberian-Romance group of the Romance languages, and the 4th most common language in the world according to Some sources, while others list it as a 2nd or 3rd most common language. It is the mother tongue of about 352 million people, and is spoken by 417 million people when adding its speakers as a language. sub (estimated in 1999). Spanish and Portuguese have very similar grammar and vocabulary; The number of similar vocabulary of these two languages is up to 89%. Spanish is the primary language of 20 countries around the world. It is estimated that the total number of speakers of Spanish is between 470 and 500 million, making it the second most widely spoken language in the world by number of native speakers.