block
Forms
- Plural
- blocks
- present (v1)
- block
- past (v2)
- blocked
- past participle (v3)
- blocked
- present participle
- blocking
- 3rd person singular
- blocks
Definitions
1.A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.
- She picked up the block and examined it.
- Anne Boleyn placed her head on the block and awaited her execution.
- He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.
2.A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or approximately rectangular.
3.A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.
- With a foreach block, you don't need to create an explicit counter variable.
- After one disk is mapped, the next block starts at address 0 on the next disk.
- 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.
- The place you are looking for is two long blocks east and one short block north.
- 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.
1.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!
- 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.To prevent (something or someone) from passing.
- A broken-down car is blocking the traffic.
3.To prevent (something from happening or someone from doing something).
- His plan to take over the business was blocked by the boss.
- 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.To impede (an opponent or opponent’s play).
- He blocked the basketball player’s shot.
- The offensive linemen tried to block the blitz.
Frequency
Overall
Common· #1311
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Rare
- Literature
- Rare
Etymology
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”).