# block

Pronunciation: say "BLOK" US /blɑk/, UK /blɒk/

## Noun

1. A substantial piece of any solid substance, such as stone, wood, or ice, often roughly cube-shaped or rectangular.
   - Simple: A large, solid piece of something such as wood or stone, often shaped like a box.
   - _Masons lifted each concrete block into place with a small crane._
   - _The sculptor began with a rough block of marble taller than she was._
2. 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.
   - Simple: A group of buildings with streets on all four sides, or the distance from one 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._
5. 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.
   - Simple: A group of similar things that are kept or used together as one unit.
   - _The airline holds a block of seats on every flight for last-minute bookings._
   - _Negotiators scheduled a three-hour block for the budget discussion._
8. In sports, an act of stopping an opposing player, or the ball or puck, such as deflecting a shot or spike at the net.
   - Simple: In sports, a move that stops another player or stops the ball from getting through.
   - _The lineman's block opened a lane for the running back._
   - _With one well-timed block, the defender sent the shot out of bounds._
9. An interruption or obstruction of normal mental processes, such as memory, speech, or creative thought.
   - Simple: A feeling that your mind is stuck and you cannot think, remember, or create.
   - _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._
10. A building with a roughly cuboid, box-like shape, such as an apartment or office building.
   - Simple: A large building shaped like a box, often full of apartments or offices.
   - _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._
11. An obstacle or obstruction that prevents something from passing.
   - Simple: Anything that stands in the way and stops things from getting through.
   - _A block in the fuel line kept the engine from starting._
   - _Engineers traced the block to a collapsed section of tunnel._
12. A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or roughly so.
   - Simple: An area or section of something, often with a square or box-like shape.
   - _A block of sunlight fell across the kitchen floor._
   - _Surveyors marked off a forty-acre block of timber for harvest._
13. A temporary or permanent ban that prevents access to an online account or service, or stops connections to or from a particular telephone number or IP address.
   - Simple: A setting or rule that stops someone from using an account, website, or phone number.
   - _She finally put a block on her ex's number after the third late-night call._
   - _A week-long block kept the spam account from posting anything new._
14. A heavy cuboid base on which material is chopped or, historically, on which condemned prisoners were beheaded.
   - Simple: A heavy piece of wood with a flat top, used as a base for chopping.
   - _The butcher trimmed the roast on a scarred maple block._
   - _He laid his neck on the block as the crowd fell silent._
17. A section of a prison in which inmates' cells are grouped; a cellblock.
   - Simple: A part of a prison where prisoners' rooms, called cells, are grouped together.
   - _Inmates from the east block eat an hour earlier than the rest._
   - _After the riot, the warden transferred him to a maximum-security block._
18. A case or frame that houses one or more pulleys, used with rope to lift loads or redirect force, as in lifting gear or a ship's rigging.
   - Simple: A hard case that holds one or more small wheels for a rope to run through, used to lift heavy things.
   - _The crew rigged a block at the masthead to hoist the new sail._
   - _He attached a block to the barn beam so the rope could change direction._
19. A set of sheets of paper joined together at one end so that they form a cuboid stack.
   - Simple: A set of paper sheets glued or joined together at one edge.
   - _The artist flipped to a fresh page in her sketch block._
   - _Each conference attendee received a block of notepaper and a pen._
20. A person's head, in informal or joking speech. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A slang word for a person's head, often heard in playful threats.
   - _One more crack like that and I'll knock your block off._
   - _My big brother joked that he'd knock my block off if I touched his bike._

## Verb

3. To obstruct a road, passage, or opening, or stand in the way, so that someone or something cannot move past or through.
   - Simple: To be in the way, or fill a path or pipe, so that people or things cannot get through.
   - _Tall hedges block the headlights of passing cars._
   - _A double-parked van blocked the ambulance for several crucial minutes._
4. To keep something from occurring or someone from carrying out an action; to thwart.
   - Simple: To stop something from happening, or stop someone from doing something.
   - _Privacy laws block companies from selling certain customer data._
   - _The senate blocked the bill in a late-night vote._
6. To stop a person, account, number, or message from contacting you or reaching an online account or service.
   - Simple: To stop someone from calling, messaging, or seeing you on a phone or online.
   - _She blocked her ex on every social media app after the breakup._
   - _If a stranger keeps texting you, just block the number._
7. To impede an opposing player or interfere with the opposing side's play.
   - Simple: In sports, to get in the way of another player to stop their move.
   - _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._
15. To experience a mental or creative block, becoming temporarily unable to produce ideas or recall information.
   - Simple: To suddenly be unable to think of ideas or remember what you wanted to say.
   - _She blocked completely during the audition and had to start her monologue over._
   - _Even seasoned novelists block now and then, staring at a blank page for days._
16. To work out and set the positions and movements of the actors for a scene in a play or film.
   - Simple: To plan exactly where actors will stand and move during a scene.
   - _The director carefully blocked each fight sequence to keep the actors safe._
   - _Before filming began, the crew watched her block the entire opening sequence on the empty set._
21. To shape or sketch something in rough outline, leaving the details to be worked out later.
   - Simple: To draw or shape something in a rough, simple way before adding detail.
   - _He blocked out the novel's plot in a single afternoon._
   - _Sculptors block out the figure in clay before refining any features._
22. To stretch or mold a knitted piece, hat, or similar item into its intended shape, typically by dampening or steaming it.
   - Simple: To stretch a knitted item or a hat into the shape you want, often after wetting it.
   - _She blocked the lace shawl on foam mats, pinning out each point._
   - _Milliners block felt hoods over wooden forms to shape each hat's crown._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A region of code within a program that is treated as a single unit, such as the body of a function or loop.
- (noun) A unit of logical data storage made up of one or more physical sectors on a storage device.
- (noun) A shaped mold, often of wood, over which hats, bonnets, and similar headwear are formed.
- (noun) A rounded wooden or plastic form shaped like a human head, used for holding, styling or storing a wig.
- (noun) A wooden base that a metal printing plate is fastened onto so it stands at the right height for printing.
- (noun) The stump or post that a hawk or falcon sits on when it is tethered.
- (noun) A stable pattern of four live cells packed into a square in the Game of Life devised by John Conway, which never changes between generations.
- (noun) A set of postage stamps still attached to each other, usually four arranged two by two, forming a square.
- (noun) A section of a vineyard planted and managed as one unit, often set apart by grape variety, trellis style or watering setup.
- (noun) A segment of a message made of a fixed number of bits, handled as one unit.
- (noun) A long stretch of a polymer chain built from repeating units that differs in some way from the stretches next to it.
- (noun) A length of railroad track treated as one unit by a signaling system that controls trains entering it.
- (noun) In Unicode, a run of consecutive code points set aside for one kind of character, sized in multiples of 16.
- (noun) At Eton College, one of the year groups into which the pupils are divided.
- (noun) In backgammon, a point holding two or more of a player's pieces, where the opponent is not allowed to land.
- (noun) In cricket, a defensive stroke in which the batter holds the bat upright to stop the ball dead so it falls near their feet.
- (noun) In cricket, the stance of a batter, or the place where the bat rests, when defending the stumps.
- (noun) In cricket, the mark on the pitch where a batter rests the bat while waiting for the ball.
- (noun) In cricket, the line in front of the stumps that marks the batter's safe ground.
- (noun) In gymnastics, the moment of a vault when the athlete pushes off the vaulting table with the hands.
- (noun) Confinement of a prisoner alone in a cell, apart from all other inmates.
- (noun) A dull, slow-witted person.
- (verb) In cricket, to stop a delivery with a defensive block stroke.
- (verb) In cricket, to play a defensive stroke that simply stops the ball.
- (verb) In computing, for a process to pause and do nothing until some condition is met, such as data becoming ready.
- (verb) To shove someone's hat down so that it covers their eyes.

## 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.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/block (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).