To Prevent, To Hamper
Transitive verb and Ichidan verb
さまたげる
あの会社は、トーフグの成功を妨げようとしているらしい。
I heard that company is trying to hamper Tofugu's success.
生産性を妨げるものは、すててしまった方がいいよ。
You should get rid of things that obstruct productivity.
どうして人々は宇宙人が地球にやってくる事を妨げようとするのか理解できません。
I don’t understand why people try preventing aliens from reaching the earth.
This word consists of kanji with hiragana attached. Because the hiragana ends with an う sound, you know this word is a verb. The kanji itself means obstruct, so what is the verb vocab version? It's to obstruct.
Since this word consists of a kanji with hiragana attached, you can bet that it will use the kun'yomi reading. You didn't learn that reading with this kanji, so here's a mnemonic to help you:
You try to obstruct a woman coming your way (see kanji). As she gets close, she roars, "I am Sama(n)tha!" (さまた) You shall let me pass!" You don't argue with Samanthas. Get out of her way!