Definition of 'block'

Word Frequency

block

(blɒk )

Word forms: blocks, blocking, blocked

1. countable noun

A block of a substance is a large rectangular piece of it.

...a block of ice.

Synonyms: piece, bar, square, mass More Synonyms of block

2. countable noun

A block of apartments or offices is a large building containing them.

...a white-painted apartment block.

Synonyms: building, group, complex, tower More Synonyms of block

3. countable noun

A block in a town or city is an area of land with streets on all its sides, or the area or distance between such streets.

He walked around the block three times.

She walked four blocks down High Street.

4. countable noun

Blocks are wooden or plastic cubes, such as those used as toys by children.

5. transitive verb

To block a road, channel, or pipe means to put an object across it or in it so that nothing can pass through it or along it.

Some students today blocked a highway that cuts through the center of the city.

Synonyms: obstruct, close, stop, cut off More Synonyms of block

6. transitive verb

If something blocks your view, it prevents you from seeing something because it is between you and that thing.

...a row of spruce trees that blocked his view of the long north slope of the mountain.

Synonyms: obscure, bar, cut off, interrupt More Synonyms of block

7. transitive verb

If you block someone's way, you prevent them from going somewhere or entering a place by standing in front of them.

I started to move around him, but he blocked my way.

8. transitive verb

If you block something that is being arranged, you prevent it from being done.

For years the country has tried to block imports of various cheap foreign products.

Synonyms: prevent, stop, check, bar More Synonyms of block

9. countable noun [usu N of n]

A block of something such as tickets or shares is a large quantity of them, especially when they are all sold at the same time and are in a particular sequence or order.

Those booking a block of seats get them at reduced rates.

Synonyms: batch, group, lot, collection More Synonyms of block

10. countable noun

If you have a mental block or a block, you are temporarily unable to do something that you can normally do which involves using, thinking about, or remembering something.

I cannot do math. I've got a mental block about it.

11. See also stumbling block

Phrasal verbs:

See block out

More Synonyms of block

Video: pronunciation of
block

Block in American English

(blɑk )

island in S R.I., at the entrance to Long Island Sound

Word origin

after Adriaen Block, 17th-c. Du navigator who explored it

Word Frequency

block in American English

(blɑk)

noun

a solid mass of wood, stone, etc., usually with one or more flat or approximately flat faces

a hollow masonry building unit of cement, terra cotta, etc

a wall made of concrete blocks

one of a set of cube-shaped pieces of wood, plastic, or the like, used as a child's toy in building

a mold or piece on which something is shaped or kept in shape

a hat block

a piece of wood used in the art of making woodcuts or wood engravings

6. Printing

the base on which a plate is mounted to make it type-high

a projection left on a squared stone to provide a means of lifting it

a short length of plank serving as a bridging, as between joists

a stump or wooden structure on which a condemned person is beheaded

Mary Stuart went bravely to the block

10. See auction block

11. Machinery

a part enclosing one or more freely rotating, grooved pulleys, about which ropes or chains pass to form a hoisting or hauling tackle

12.

an obstacle, obstruction, or hindrance

His stubbornness is a block to all my efforts

13.

the state or condition of being obstructed; blockage

The traffic block lasted several hours

14. Pathology

an obstruction, as of a nerve

b. See heart block

15. Sport

a hindering of an opponent's actions

16.

a quantity, portion, or section taken as a unit or dealt with at one time

a large block of theater tickets

17.

a small section of a city, town, etc., enclosed by neighboring and intersecting streets

She lives on my block

18.

the length of one side of such a section

We walked two blocks over

19. chiefly Brit

a large building divided into separate apartments, offices, shops, etc

20.

a large number of bonds or shares of stock sold together as a single unit

21. Computing

a group of data stored as a unit on an external storage medium and handled as a unit by the computer for input or output:

This file has 20 records per block

a section of storage locations in a computer allocated to a particular set of instructions or data

a group of consecutive machine words organized as a unit and guiding a particular computer operation, esp. with reference to input and output

d. (on a flow chart)

a symbol representing an operation, device, or instruction in a computer program

22. Railroads

any of the short lengths into which a track is divided for signaling purposes

23. Philately

a group of four or more unseparated stamps, not in a strip

24. slang

a person's head

25. (in glassmaking)

a wooden or metal cup for blocking a gather

26.

an obstruction or stoppage in mental processes or speech, esp. when related to stress, emotional conflict, etc

27. See writer's block

28. Geology

any large, angular mass of solid rock

b. See fault block

29. (in Canada)

a wild or remote area of land that has not yet been surveyed

the Peace River block

30. Automobiles See cylinder block

31. Falconry

a low perch to which a falcon is tethered outdoors

32. See put on the block

transitive verb

33. (sometimes fol. by up)

to obstruct (someone or something) by placing obstacles in the way

to block one's exit

to block up a passage

34.

to fit with blocks; mount on a block

35.

to shape or prepare on or with a block

to block a hat

to block a sweater

36.

to join (the ends of boards or the like) by fastening to a block of wood

37. Theater

a. Also: block out

to plan or work out the movement of performers in a play, pageant, etc

Tomorrow we'll block act one

to draw a floor plan on (a stage) in order to indicate placement of scenery, stage property, etc

38. Pathology & Physiology

to stop the passage of impulses in (a nerve)

39. Computing

to group ( contiguous data) together so as to allow to be read or written in a single operation

40. Sport

to hinder or bar the actions or movements of (an opposing player), esp. legitimately

41. (in glassmaking)

to shape (a molten gather) in a wet cup of wood or metal

to plunge a block of wood into (molten glass) to aid in refining the glass

42. Engineering

to give (a forging) a rough form before finishing

43. Electronics

to apply a high negative bias to the grid of (a vacuum tube), for reducing the plate current to zero

intransitive verb

44.

to act so as to obstruct an opponent, as in football, hockey, and basketball

He doesn't get many baskets, but he sure can block

45. Theater

to block a play, act, scene, stage, etc

The director will block tomorrow

46.

to suffer a block

47. See block out

48. See block in

Derived forms

blockable

adjective

Word origin

[1275–1325; ME blok log, stump (‹ MF bloc) ‹ MD blok; perh. akin to balk]

Word Frequency

block in British English

(blɒk )

noun

a large solid piece of wood, stone, or other material with flat rectangular sides, as for use in building

any large solid piece of wood, stone, etc, usually having at least one face fairly flat

such a piece on which particular tasks may be done, as chopping, cutting, or beheading

4. Also called: building block

one of a set of wooden or plastic cubes as a child's toy

a form on which things are shaped or displayed

a wig block

6. slang

a person's head (esp in the phrase knock someone's block off)

7. do one's block

a dull, unemotional, or hardhearted person

a large building of offices, flats, etc

10.

a group of buildings in a city bounded by intersecting streets on each side

the area or distance between such intersecting streets

11. Australian and New Zealand

an area of land for a house, farm, etc

12. Australian and New Zealand

a log, usually a willow, fastened to a timber base and used in a wood-chopping competition

13.

an area of land, esp one to be divided for building or settling

14. cylinder block

15.

a piece of wood, metal, or other material having an engraved, cast, or carved design in relief, used either for printing or for stamping book covers, etc

b. British

a letterpress printing plate, esp one mounted type-high on wood or metal

16.

a casing housing one or more freely rotating pulleys

Examples of 'block' in a sentence
block

These examples have been automatically selected and may contain sensitive content. Read more…

But the way forward was blocked by political obstacles to reaching such a solution.They aim to snarl traffic in the area by blocking the main coastal motorway.He vowed to crack down on councils blocking housebuilding.On the streets rising up the hillside above me are new, swish apartment blocks.Another large government office block that was opened in 2005 may have to be demolished.They are best done in solid blocks, and invest in texture if you want a bit of a kick. Maybe their view was blocked.He escaped a rolling road block by turning into the street where he lived, only to find it blocked by another police car. Commodity prices, the building blocks of much of what we buy, are also climbing.These are all positive building blocks for the life ahead.

Word lists with
block

Terms used in American football, Social networking terms

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