unblock

Formsunblocks, unblocking, unblocked

Pluralunblocks

1. 1
   verbtransitive

   To remove or clear away a block or obstruction from a passage, pipe, or opening.

   Engineers worked overnight to unblock the tunnel after the collapse.

   A sudden surge of water finally unblocked the culvert beneath the road.

   Similarclear, unclog, unplug, free, open

   Oppositeblock, obstruct, clog

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To enable communication again (by phone, messaging, or similar) with someone you had previously blocked.

   After the misunderstanding, she chose to unblock him on every platform.

   The moderator unblocked the user once the appeal was approved.

   Oppositeblock

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To free something up or make it available, especially resources or progress that had been held back.

   The agreement should unblock billions in frozen aid.

   Withdrawing the veto unblocked the negotiations within hours.

   Similarrelease, unlock, unfreeze, free

   Oppositeblock, freeze

4. 4
   nouncountable

   The act of removing a block or blockage so that something can flow or function again.

   The unblock of the main sewer line required heavy equipment.

   Technicians scheduled the unblock for early the next morning.

   Similarclearance, clearing

   Note

   Specialist prose is where the noun mostly lives. Danny Roth's Focus on Declarer Play (1997) calls for "spectacular unblocks," the card-table move of the whist discard. On-Chip Networks (2017) lists unblocks among a chip's control messages, which are short signals carrying little more than an address and header. In both fields it counts freely, and the plural unblocks is the usual form.

5. 5
   verbintransitive

   In whist, to discard a high card so as not to interrupt the run of one's partner's long suit.

   A good player will unblock to let a partner's long suit score.

   He unblocked with the king, clearing the way for her spades.

   Note

   Card players borrow the plumbing image. One's own high card is the obstruction, and a partner's long suit is what must flow. The verb is intransitive: a player simply unblocks, or unblocks with the king, rather than unblocking a card. The move usually gives up a winner from a short holding so that the partner's established suit can run without being trapped behind it.

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