block

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /blɒk/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /blɑk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒk
• Homophone: bloc

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.

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.

      • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

        You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year.

   2. A wig block: a simplified head model upon which wigs are worn.
      • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 13”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

        Next morning, Monday, after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber, for a block, I settled my own and comrade’s bill; using, however, my comrade’s money.

   3. A mould on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.
      • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

        He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.

   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 (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 (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 (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.

      Coordinate term: cluster

      • 2003, Dilip M. Ranade, Shared Data Clusters, page 79:

        After one disk is mapped, the next block starts at address 0 on the next disk.

   2. (programming) A region of code in a program that acts as a single unit, such as a function or loop.
      • 2006, Matthew MacDonald, Beginning ASP.NET 2.0 in C# 2005: From Novice to Professional, page 49:

        With a foreach block, you don't need to create an explicit counter variable.

   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, 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: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     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:

        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.
   • c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene v]:

     What a block art thou!

• See also Thesaurus:head
• city block

• bloc

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, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2019-11-25‎:

     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.

   • 2024 March 18, Sarah Zhang, “DNA Tests Are Uncovering the True Prevalence of Incest”, in The Atlantic‎:

     He messages her occasionally on Facebook, sending photos of grandkids and puppies he’s raised. Every year, he wishes her a happy birthday. She has not replied, but she has also not blocked him.

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. (intransitive) To experience mental block or creative block.
    • 1976 April 26, Jil Clark, Julia Penelope, Susan Wolfe, “The Politics of Language”, in Gay Community News, page 8:

      As I started to read the stories I thought, "I have to write my story," but I blocked on it for six months. I couldn't write anything else while I couldn't write my coming out story. It seemed to me a subterfuge to turn out an anthology of coming out stories which didn't have my story in it.

14. (transitive, slang, obsolete) To knock the hat of (a person) down over their eyes.

    Synonym: bonnet

block

1. Misspelling of bloc.

• 卜 (bok¹)

From English block. Doublet of 薄lock.

block (Hong Kong Cantonese)

1. (social media) to block (someone)

• IPA^(key): /blɔk/

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• Homophones: Block, Blog, blogg

block

1. singular imperative of blocken

Borrowed from English block.

block m (genitive singular bluick)

1. block, log, cake (of soap)

• block-lettyr

Unadapted borrowing from English block. Doublet of bloco.

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ɔki, (Portugal) -ɔkɨ
• Homophone: bloque (Brazil)

block m (plural blocks)

1. (social media) block (temporary or permanent ban that prevents access to an online account or service)

   Synonym: bloqueio

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

• audio

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ˈblɔk/

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)

• anteckningsblock
• blädderblock
• blockbaserad
• blockstorlek
• diskblock
• flyttblock
• isblock
• skrivblock
• stenblock

• blockad
• blockera

• block in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• block in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• block in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)