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Comment by mkl | Hacker News Reader

> This builds upon our success using drones to interdict dozens of subway surfers before tragedy strikes.

What does this sentence mean? Searching and Urban Dictionary didn't help.

Riding (standing) on the top of subway trains. An activity indulged in primarily by kids. Unfortunately people fall off or are hit when they enter a tunnel. The drones detect the surfers when the trains are not within tunnels. The MTA (subway cops) then usually follow up and detain the surfers. Here's a story (with an image):

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/02/us/nyc-subway-surfing-teen-de...

I'm a native speaker (but not a New Yorker). I would interpret "subway surfers" to mean people riding on the roofs of subway trains for fun, though it's unclear what help a drone would be in getting them to stop.

Odd because I thought "interdict" meant "prohibit" but from context here it seems to be being used to mean something more like "catch".

Maybe misused or maybe a sense I'm not aware of or maybe the drones really will prohibit it by preventing them climbing up in the first place.

Your definition is definitely the historically more common one.

But see the final definition under the verb here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/interdict#English

(transitive, US, military) To impede (an enemy); to interrupt or destroy (enemy communications, supply lines etc). [from 20th c.]

You see this version with the noun "interdictor" now as well.

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