Block Definition

blŏk
blocked, blocking, blocks
noun
blocks
Any large, solid piece of wood, stone, or metal, often with flat surfaces.
Webster's New World
A blocklike stand or platform on which hammering, chopping, etc. is done.
A butcher's block, headsman's block.
Webster's New World
An auctioneer's platform.
Webster's New World
Such a piece upon which persons are beheaded.
American Heritage
Any solid piece of material used to strengthen or support.
Webster's New World
Antonyms:
verb
blocked, blocking, blocks
To impede the passage or progress of; obstruct.
Webster's New World
To blockade.
Webster's New World
To prevent from happening, succeeding, or progressing.
Blocked every attempt to reform the rules.
American Heritage
To block an opponent.
Webster's New World
To create difficulties for; stand in the way of; hinder.
Webster's New World
Antonyms:
adjective
Made or formed in a block or blocks.
Block coal.
Webster's New World
Set out like or involving a city block.
Webster's New World
Having no indentation in address, heading, or paragraphs.
Webster's New World
idiom
go on the block
  • To be offered for sale.
American Heritage
out of the blocks
  • From a starting position, as in a race or contest:

    The company has in the past been slow out of the blocks to adapt to consumer tastes.

American Heritage
put on the block
  • To offer for sale.
American Heritage
block up
  • to fill in (a passage, space, etc.) so as to obstruct
  • to elevate on blocks
Webster's New World
go to the block
  • to be beheaded
  • to be up for sale in an auction
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Block

Noun

Singular:
block
Plural:
blocks

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Block

Origin of Block

  • From Middle English blok (“log, stump, solid piece”), from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from Middle Dutch blok (“treetrunk”), from Old Saxon *blok (“log”), from Proto-Germanic *blukką (“beam, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *bhulg'-, from *bhelg'- (“thick plank, beam, pile, prop”). Cognate with Old High German bloh, bloc (German Block, “block”), Old English bolca (“gangway of a ship, plank”), Old Norse bǫlkr (Norwegian bolk, “divider, partition”). More at balk.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English blok from Old French bloc from Middle Dutch

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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