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block definition

Overview

This page has 59 definitions of block with English translations in 6 languages. Block is a noun and verb. Examples of how to use block in a sentence are shown. Also define these 0 related words and terms: .

See also: Block

English block definition

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English blok (“log, stump, solid piece”), from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from Middle Dutch blok (“treetrunk”), from Old Dutch *blok (“log”), from Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰelǵ- (“thick plank, beam, pile, prop”). Cognate with Old Frisian blok, Old Saxon blok, Old High German bloh, bloc (“block”), Old English bolca (“gangway of a ship, plank”), Old Norse bǫlkr (“divider, partition”). More at balk. See also bloc, bulk.

Noun

block (plural blocks)

  1. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.
    a block of ice, a block of stone
    1. A chopping block: a cuboid base for cutting or beheading.
      Anne Boleyn placed her head on the block and awaited her execution.
    2. A wig block: a simplified head model upon which wigs are worn.
    3. A mould on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.
    4. (printing, dated) A piece of hard wood on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted.
    5. A case or frame housing one or more sheaves (pulleys), used with ropes to increase or redirect force, for example as part of lifting gear or a sailing ship's rigging. See also block and tackle.
      Synonym: pulley block
    6. A section of split logs used as fuel.
      • 1833, The Gospel Anchor, volume 2, page 371:
        She said, 'I hope I shall not be left to kill myself, but It would be no more sin to kill me, than to put a block on the fire.'
      • 1803, Mary Tighe, Selena:
        "Aye," said the farmer putting another block on the fire as he spoke […]
      • 2012, Ron Herrett, Shorty's Story:
        Dawn and Shorty would cut this tree into blocks, while Randy and Matt went back for more. Dawn and Shorty made a good team on the crosscut, so when another log arrived, the first was almost completely made into shake wood.
    7. A set of sheets (of paper) joined together at one end, forming a cuboid shape.
      a block of 100 tickets
    8. (falconry) The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.
    9. (cellular automata) In Conway's Game of Life, a still life consisting of four living cells arranged in a two-by-two square.
      • 1989 October 31, Scott Huddleston, “life: glider guns”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎[1] (Usenet):
        But there are many queen bee configurations in which the debris is neutralized, including placement of a block or eater near the bee's turnaround point, or placing two queen bees in a line or at right angles in various positions and phases.
      • 1997 November 30, David Bell, “Day & Night - An Interesting Variant of Life (part 5/5)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎[2] (Usenet):
        Perhaps the simplest puffer known is the following period 20 puffer based on the period 20 spaceship, which creates blocks.
      • 2005 February 23, Dave Greene, “exist glider gun able of reconstruction in Life?”, in comp.theory.cell-automata‎[3] (Usenet):
        Blocks have a couple of unusual properties: they are cleanly destroyed by an incoming glider on any one of six adjacent paths, and none of the possible collisions include any output gliders, so you can't get chain reactions.
  2. A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or approximately rectangular.
    a block of text, a block of colour, a block of land
    1. (philately) A joined group of four (or in some cases nine) postage stamps, forming a roughly square shape.
    2. (viticulture) A discrete group of vines in a vineyard, often distinguished from others by variety, clone, canopy training method, irrigation infrastructure, or some combination thereof.
  3. A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.
    a block of data, a block of seven days, a block reservation
    1. (computing) A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see cluster).
    2. (programming) A region of code in a program that acts as a single unit, such as a function or loop.
    3. (cryptography) A fixed-length group of bits making up part of a message.
    4. (chemistry) A portion of a macromolecule, comprising many units, that has at least one feature not present in adjacent portions.
    5. (rail transport) A section of a railroad where the block system is used.
    6. (computing) A contiguous range of Unicode code points used to encode characters of a specific type; can be of any size evenly divisible by 16, up to 65,536 (a full plane).
      The "Specials" block comprises the sixteen codepoints from U+FFF0 through U+FFFF.
  4. A contiguous group of urban lots of property, typically several acres in extent, not crossed by public streets.
    I'm going for a walk around the block.
    1. The distance from one street to another in a city or suburb that is built (approximately) to a grid pattern.
      The place you are looking for is two long blocks east and one short block north.
      • 1832, Records and Briefs of the United States Supreme Court, page 423:
        The Witness: Well, I have one that is 8/10 of a mile away; I have one that is just about another 8/10 of a mile away; I have one that is three blocks away; I have one that is four blocks away; I have one that is eight blocks away, and I have one that is about 14 blocks away.
      • 2009, Hape Kerkeling, I'm Off Then‎[4], page 241:
        This uphill trail is like a battlefield. Anne offers to carry the older woman's backpack. […] I couldn't walk three blocks with the Danish woman's bulging backpack.
      • 2017, Raymond E. Murphy, The Central Business District, page 37:
        A county courthouse and a municipal building, located approximately a city block north of the district, were automatically excluded because they were separated from the main CBD by several blocks that did not reach either of the required index values.
  5. A roughly cuboid building.
    a block of flats, a tower block, an office block, a toilet block, a shower block
    • 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess‎[5]:
      He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.
    1. A cellblock.
  6. Something that prevents something from passing.
    Synonyms: barrier, blockage, obstruction
    There's a block in the pipe that means the water can't get through.
    1. Interference or obstruction of cognitive processes.
      • 1977 April 1, “COUNSELING (personal advertisement)”, in Gay Community News, page 14:
        I work with writers/artists/others using artistic skills as a tool to explore blocks and free creative energy.
      a mental block
      writer's block
    2. (sports) An action to interfere with the movement of an opposing player or of the object of play (ball, puck).
      Synonyms: stuff, roof, wall
      • 2011 February 12, Oliver Brett, “Sunderland 1–2 Tottenham”, in BBC‎[6]:
        The match proved an unedifying spectacle until Spurs won a corner following their first move of real quality, John Mensah making an important block with Jermain Defoe poised to strike.
      1. (cricket) A shot played by holding the bat vertically in the path of the ball, so that it loses momentum and drops to the ground.
      2. (cricket) The position of a player or bat when guarding the wicket.
      3. (cricket) A blockhole.
      4. (cricket) The popping crease.
      5. (volleyball) A defensive play by one or more players meant to deflect a spiked ball back to the hitter’s court.
    3. A temporary or permanent ban that prevents access to an online account or service, or connection to or from a designated telephone number, IP address, or similar.
      The Wiktionary page-blanking vandal was hit with an indefinite block.
      I've put a block on calls from that number.
  7. (slang) The human head.
    I'll knock your block off!
  8. (UK) Solitary confinement.
  9. (obsolete) A blockhead; a stupid person; a dolt.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Terms derived from block (noun)
cuboid
group of buildings
computing
distance
cutting base
prevent passage
rigging
human head
volleyball
  • block assist
  • blocking error
  • solo block
miscellaneous
unsorted
Related terms
Descendants
Translations
simplified head model — see wig block
cellblock — see cellblock
cricket: blockhole — see blockhole
cricket: popping crease — see popping crease
solitary confinement — see solitary confinement
stupid person — see blockhead
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Dictionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Verb

block (third-person singular simple present blocks, present participle blocking, simple past and past participle blocked)

  1. (transitive) To fill or obstruct (something) so that it is not possible to pass.
    The pipe was blocked by leaves.
    You're blocking the road – I can't get through!
    • 2020 January 2, Philip Haigh, “Is there relief to congestion along Castlefield Corridor?”, in Rail, page 23:
      However, at Manchester the junctions and signals are so close that a train running more slowly over several junctions simply blocks those junctions for longer, preventing other trains moving.
  2. (transitive) To prevent (something or someone) from passing.
    A broken-down car is blocking the traffic.
  3. (transitive) To prevent (something from happening or someone from doing something).
    His plan to take over the business was blocked by the boss.
    • 2019 November 25, Austin Ramzy, Tiffany May, Katherine Li, Elaine Yu, “Here’s What 5 of Hong Kong’s Newly Elected Politicians Have to Say”, in The New York Times‎[7], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-11-25‎[8]:
      Mr. Ip, who was the chairman of the Yau Tsim Mong district council, became a target of protesters in July after he blocked debate on the extradition bill that incited the protests this summer.
  4. (transitive, sports) To impede (an opponent or opponent's play).
    He blocked the basketball player's shot.
    The offensive linemen tried to block the blitz.
  5. (transitive, theater) To specify the positions and movements of the actors for (a section of a play or film).
    It was very difficult to block this scene convincingly.
  6. (transitive, cricket) To hit with a block.
  7. (intransitive, cricket) To play a block shot.
  8. (transitive) To bar (a person or bot, etc.) from connecting via telephone, instant messaging, etc., or from accessing an online account or service, or similar.
    I tried to send you a message, but you've blocked me!
    The user who started the edit war was blocked for a day to cool off.
  9. (transitive) To bar (a message or communication), or bar connection with (an online account or service, a designated telephone number, IP address, etc.).
    They've blocked all calls to international numbers.
    Most Internet services have been blocked.
  10. (programming, intransitive) To wait for some condition to become true.
    When the condition expression is false, the thread blocks on the condition variable.
    • 2014, Richard Blewett, Andrew Clymer, Pro Asynchronous Programming with .NET, page 25:
      Post is a “fire and forget” where the UI thread work is performed asynchronously; Send is synchronous in that the call blocks until the UI thread work has been performed.
  11. (transitive) To stretch or mould (a knitted item, a hat, etc.) into the desired shape.
    I blocked the mittens by wetting them and pinning them to a shaped piece of cardboard.
  12. (transitive) To shape or sketch out roughly.
    When drawing a scene, first block the main features, and then fill in the detail.
  13. (transitive, slang, obsolete) To knock the hat of (a person) down over their eyes.
    Synonym: bonnet
Derived terms
terms derived from block (verb)
Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

block

  1. Misspelling of bloc.

Chinese block definition

Alternative forms

Etymology

From English block. Doublet of 薄lock.

Pronunciation

Verb

block (Hong Kong Cantonese)

  1. (social media) to block (someone)

German block definition

Pronunciation

Verb

block

  1. singular imperative of blocken

Manx block definition

Etymology

Borrowed from English block.

Noun

block m (genitive singular bluick)

  1. block, log, cake (of soap)

Derived terms

Mutation

Manx mutation
Radical Lenition Eclipsis
block vlock mlock
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every
possible mutated form of every word actually occurs.

Spanish block definition

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English block. Doublet of bloc and bloque.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈblok/ [ˈblok]
  • Rhymes: -ok
  • Syllabification: block

Noun

block m (plural blocks)

  1. (Guatemala) cement block
    Synonym: bloque de cemento

Swedish block definition

Etymology

From Middle Low German block, from Old Saxon blok, from Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukką.

Pronunciation

Noun

block n

  1. a block, a boulder, a cuboid (of ice, wood, rock)
  2. a block, a pad, a notebook
  3. a block, a pulley
  4. a block, a piece of data storage
  5. a bloc (of voters or countries)

Declension

Declension of block 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative block blocket block blocken
Genitive blocks blockets blocks blockens

Derived terms

Related terms

References

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