DictionaryAI

block

SayBLOK/blɑk/UK/blɒk/

Pluralblocks

Verbblocks, blocking, blocked

48 meanings of block

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  1. 1
    nouncountable
    A substantial piece of any solid substance, such as stone, wood, or ice, often roughly cube-shaped or rectangular.

    Masons lifted each concrete block into place with a small crane.

    The sculptor began with a rough block of marble taller than she was.

    UsageThe material follows of: a block of ice, a block of marble.

    Similarchunk, slab, lump, piece

    Note

    The sense the others grow from, and it began as wood: Middle Dutch blok was a tree trunk, and the Germanic root meant a beam or log. English widened it to stone, ice and concrete, so a block is now any solid chunk of a substance.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  2. 2
    nouncountable
    An area of a city or town bounded by streets on all sides, or the distance along a street from one cross street to the next.

    They jogged a full block before catching up with the bus.

    Her office is three blocks north of the subway station.

    UsageCounted in directions: three blocks north, two blocks away, around the block.

    Note

    A unit of directions more than of measurement: people count blocks, not meters. Because grid cells are often rectangles, blocks come long and short, as in "two long blocks east and one short block north." The fuller form is city block, used by Raymond E. Murphy in The Central Business District (1972). It can also mean the land itself: a group of lots that no public street crosses.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Rectangular blocks can have different lengths in different directions. en.wikipedia.org
    • Raymond E. Murphy used city block in The Central Business District. en.wiktionary.org
  3. 3
    verbtransitive
    To obstruct a road, passage, or opening, or stand in the way, so that someone or something cannot move past or through.

    Tall hedges block the headlights of passing cars.

    A double-parked van blocked the ambulance for several crucial minutes.

    UsageOften block the way, block the view, or block off a road. Blocked also means clogged: a blocked drain.

  4. 4
    prevent actionverbtransitive
    To keep something from occurring or someone from carrying out an action; to thwart.

    Privacy laws block companies from selling certain customer data.

    The senate blocked the bill in a late-night vote.

    UsageOften block someone from doing something: laws block companies from selling data.

    Similarprevent, stop, bar, thwart, prohibit

    Oppositeallow, permit

  5. 5
    nouncountable
    A grouping of like things treated together as a single unit, such as a span of time, a set of seats, or a range of numbers.

    The airline holds a block of seats on every flight for last-minute bookings.

    Negotiators scheduled a three-hour block for the budget discussion.

    UsageUse a block of with a group or time: a block of seats, a block of time. Also: a three-hour block.

    Similarset, batch, slot, chunk

    Note

    The things grouped need not sit side by side; they only have to be handled as one, like a block of seven days or blocks of hard-to-use hours between flights. The computing senses of storage and code grow from this one.

  6. 6
    verbtransitive
    To stop a person, account, number, or message from contacting you or reaching an online account or service.

    She blocked her ex on every social media app after the breakup.

    If a stranger keeps texting you, just block the number.

    UsageYou block someone on an app or block a number; the reverse is unblock.

    Similarbar, reject, stop

    Oppositeallow, permit, accept

  7. 7
    verbtransitive
    To impede an opposing player or interfere with the opposing side's play.

    The lineman blocked the defender long enough for the quarterback to throw.

    Defenders are taught to block the striker's path to the near post without fouling.

    UsageTakes the player or the play: block an opponent, block a shot.

    Similarimpede, obstruct

    Note

    What counts as legal blocking depends on the sport. Offensive linemen in football block on almost every snap, while in basketball, impeding a moving player without legal position is a foul.

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

  8. 8
    nouncountable
    In sports, an act of stopping an opposing player, or the ball or puck, such as deflecting a shot or spike at the net.

    The lineman's block opened a lane for the running back.

    With one well-timed block, the defender sent the shot out of bounds.

    UsageOften make a block: the defender made an important block.

    Similardeflection, stop

    Note

    A general sports term whose job changes with the game. In soccer reporting it is a defender's interception, like John Mensah "making an important block" in a 2011 Sunderland–Tottenham match. It also has livelier synonyms: a stuff, a roof, a wall. In American football, by contrast, blocking is mainly an offensive job: clearing a path for a teammate.

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • A report of a 2011 Sunderland–Tottenham match described John Mensah as "making an important block". en.wiktionary.org
    • American-football blocking is principally an offensive task that creates space for a teammate. operations.nfl.com
  9. 9
    mental barriernouncountable
    An interruption or obstruction of normal mental processes, such as memory, speech, or creative thought.

    After months of daily columns, the journalist hit a block and couldn't draft a single paragraph.

    A sudden block left the actor groping for lines he had rehearsed a hundred times.

    UsageMost often a mental block or writer's block. You have or hit a block and work through it.

    Similarbarrier, obstruction, blockage

  10. 10
    apartment buildingnouncountable
    A building with a roughly cuboid, box-like shape, such as an apartment or office building.

    Their apartment is on the fifth floor of a modern block overlooking the river.

    Developers plan to replace the parking lot with a ten-story residential block.

    UsageMostly in compounds: a block of flats, tower block, office block.

    Similarbuilding

    Note

    In The China Governess (1962), Margery Allingham describes "the enormous new block of council dwellings" raised on plinths like an Atlantic liner. The vocabulary around it, flats and council dwellings, is British.

  11. 11
    obstaclenouncountable
    An obstacle or obstruction that prevents something from passing.

    A block in the fuel line kept the engine from starting.

    Engineers traced the block to a collapsed section of tunnel.

    Similarbarrier, obstruction, blockage

  12. 12
    nouncountable
    A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or roughly so.

    A block of sunlight fell across the kitchen floor.

    Surveyors marked off a forty-acre block of timber for harvest.

    Similarpatch, tract, area, section

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English blok ("log, stump, solid piece"), borrowed from Old French bloc ("log, block"), which came from Middle Dutch blok ("treetrunk") and older Germanic roots meaning "beam" or "log". It may trace back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "thick plank, beam, or prop", and is related to English balk, bloc, and bulk.

Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

  • Block comes from Middle English blok, meaning log, stump, or solid piece. en.wiktionary.org
  • Middle English borrowed the word from Old French bloc, meaning log or block, ultimately from Middle Dutch blok, meaning tree trunk. en.wiktionary.org
  • The word has earlier Germanic ancestors meaning beam or log. en.wiktionary.org
  • Block is etymologically related to English balk, bloc, and bulk. en.wiktionary.org