student asking question

What's "get in the way" mean?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

When something "gets in the way," it is making it difficult to continue or happen. It means that that thing is interfering with something else. When "everything gets in the way" here essentially is referring to when things ("everything") in life become difficult, when life becomes difficult due to many things preventing it from going smoothly. You can use "get in the way" in both the metaphorical and literal sense. Ex: He wanted to travel around the world, but the pandemic got in the way. Ex: A car swerved into my lane, getting in the way.

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