bottlenecks

Noun

bottleneck (plural bottlenecks)

1. The narrow portion that forms the pouring spout of a bottle; the neck of a bottle.
   1. A portion of a bottleneck placed on the finger and used as a guitar slide.
2. (figuratively) In traffic, any narrowing of the road, especially resulting in a delay.
   • "Permissive" working allows more than one train to be in a block section at one time but trains must be run at low speed in order to stop on sight behind the train in front. Such working is often authorised to allow freight trains to "bunch" together to await a path through a bottleneck instead of...1962 October, “Talking of Trains: The collisions at Connington”, in Modern Railways, page 232

   Synonyms:

   chokepoint

3. (broadly, figuratively) The part of a process that is too slow or cumbersome due to the lessening of available throughput.
   • It is easy to create entries; processing the paperwork is the bottleneck.

See all 6 meanings of bottleneck