block

noun

1. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

   “a block of ice; a block of stone”

   “She picked up the block and examined it.”

2. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

   “Anne Boleyn placed her head on the block and awaited her execution.”

   “You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year.”

3. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

   “Next morning, Monday, after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber, for a block, I settled my own and comrade’s bill; using, however, my comrade’s money.”

4. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

   “He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.”

5. (dated)A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.
6. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.
7. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

   “She said, 'I hope I shall not be left to kill myself, but It would be no more sin to kill me, than to put a block on the fire.'”

   “"Aye," said the farmer putting another block on the fire as he spoke […]”

   “Dawn and Shorty would cut this tree into blocks, while Randy and Matt went back for more. Dawn and Shorty made a good team on the crosscut, so when another log arrived, the first was almost completely made into shake wood.”

8. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

   “a block of 100 tickets”

9. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.
10. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

    “But there are many queen bee configurations in which the debris is neutralized, including placement of a block or eater near the bee's turnaround point, or placing two queen bees in a line or at right angles in various positions and phases.”

    “Perhaps the simplest puffer known is the following period 20 puffer based on the period 20 spaceship, which creates blocks.”

    “Blocks have a couple of unusual properties: they are cleanly destroyed by an incoming glider on any one of six adjacent paths, and none of the possible collisions include any output gliders, so you can't get chain reactions.”

11. A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or approximately rectangular.

    “a block of text; a block of colour; a block of land”

12. A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or approximately rectangular.
13. A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or approximately rectangular.
14. A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.

    “a block of data; a block of seven days; a block reservation”

    “The great game of golf offered an antidote to the inevitable dead space — blocks of difficult-to-use hours, pre- and postflight — that are one of business travel’s biggest drags.”

15. A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.

    “After one disk is mapped, the next block starts at address 0 on the next disk.”

    “The difficulty of each puzzle would increase as the number of miners increased, which would keep production to one block of transactions roughly every 10 minutes. In addition, the size of each block bounty would halve every 210,000 blocks—first from 50 bitcoins to 25, then from 25 to 12.5, and so on. Around the year 2140, the currency would reach its preordained limit of 21 million bitcoins.”

16. 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.”

17. A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.
18. A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.
19. A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.
20. A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.

    “The "Specials" block comprises the sixteen codepoints from U+FFF0 through U+FFFF.”

21. A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.
22. 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.”

23. A contiguous group of urban lots of property, typically several acres in extent, not crossed by public streets.

    “The place you are looking for is two long blocks east and one short block north.”

    “The Witness: Well, I have one that is 8/10 of a mile away; I have one that is just about another 8/10 of a mile away; I have one that is three blocks away; I have one that is four blocks away; I have one that is eight blocks away, and I have one that is about 14 blocks away.”

    “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.”

    “A county courthouse and a municipal building, located approximately a city block north of the district, were automatically excluded because they were separated from the main CBD by several blocks that did not reach either of the required index values.”

24. A cuboid or approximately cuboid building.

    “a block of flats; a tower block; an office block; a toilet block; a shower block”

    “He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.”

25. A cuboid or approximately cuboid building.
26. Something that prevents something from passing.

    “There’s a block in the pipe that means the water can’t get through.”

27. Something that prevents something from passing.

    “I work with writers/artists/others using artistic skills as a tool to explore blocks and free creative energy.”

    “a mental block”

    “writer’s block”

28. Something that prevents something from passing.
29. Something that prevents something from passing.

    “The match proved an unedifying spectacle until Spurs won a corner following their first move of real quality, John Mensah making an important block with Jermain Defoe poised to strike.”

30. Something that prevents something from passing.
31. Something that prevents something from passing.
32. Something that prevents something from passing.
33. Something that prevents something from passing.
34. Something that prevents something from passing.
35. Something that prevents something from passing.

    “While it might seem like she should bend her elbows in order to spring up — the way you bend your knees in order to jump — a good block actually requires the gymnast to keep her arms straight and use her shoulder strength to launch into the air.”

36. Something that prevents something from passing.

    “The Wiktionary page-blanking vandal was hit with an indefinite block.”

    “He was blocked from playing Roblox due to cheating and scamming.”

    “I’ve put a block on calls from that number.”

37. (slang)The human head.

    “I’ll knock your block off!”

38. (UK)Solitary confinement.
39. (obsolete)A blockhead; a stupid person; a dolt.

    “What a block art thou!”

40. (alt-of, misspelling)Misspelling of bloc.

verb

1. (transitive)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. (transitive)To prevent (something or someone) from passing.

   “A broken-down car is blocking the traffic.”

3. (transitive)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. (transitive)To impede (an opponent or opponent’s play).

   “He blocked the basketball player’s shot.”

   “The offensive linemen tried to block the blitz.”

5. (transitive)To specify the positions and movements of the actors for (a section of a play or film).

   “It was very difficult to block this scene convincingly.”

6. (transitive)To hit with a block.
7. (intransitive)To play a block shot.
8. (transitive)To bar (impose a ban on a person or bot, etc.) from connecting via telephone, instant messaging, etc., or from accessing an online account or service, or similar.

   “I tried to send you a message, but you’ve blocked me!”

   “The user who started the edit war was blocked for a day to cool off.”

   “He messages her occasionally on Facebook, sending photos of grandkids and puppies he’s raised. Every year, he wishes her a happy birthday. She has not replied, but she has also not blocked him.”

9. (transitive)To bar (a message or communication), or bar connection with (an online account or service, a designated telephone number, IP address, etc.).

   “They’ve blocked all calls to international numbers.”

   “Most Internet services have been blocked.”

10. (intransitive)To wait for some condition to become true.

    “When the condition expression is false, the thread blocks on the condition variable.”

    “Post is a “fire and forget” where the UI thread work is performed asynchronously; Send is synchronous in that the call blocks until the UI thread work has been performed.”

11. (transitive)To shape, stretch, or mould knitted items, hats, books (and book covers), shoes, etc.

    “I blocked the mittens by wetting them and pinning them to a shaped piece of cardboard.”

    “Then I finished knitting the socks and wove in all ends for each sock before soaking them in warm water and wool wash for 20 minutes and blocking them on sock blockers.”

12. (transitive)To shape or sketch out roughly.

    “When drawing a scene, first block the main features, and then fill in the detail.”

13. (intransitive)To experience mental block or creative block.

    “As I started to read the stories I thought, "I have to write my story," but I blocked on it for six months. I couldn't write anything else while I couldn't write my coming out story. It seemed to me a subterfuge to turn out an anthology of coming out stories which didn't have my story in it.”

14. (obsolete, slang, transitive)To knock the hat of (a person) down over their eyes.

name

1. (countable, uncountable)A surname.

   “The major themes in Francesca Lia Block's books include the necessity of love and the acceptance of and celebration of racial and sexual difference.”

   “Zachary Block chats with Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen about their new show, Portlandia, which airs on IFC, Fridays at 10:30.”

2. (countable, uncountable)A surname.
3. (countable, uncountable)A surname.
4. (countable, uncountable)A surname.
5. (countable, uncountable)A surname.
6. (countable, uncountable)An unincorporated community in Champaign County, Illinois, United States.
7. (countable, uncountable)An unincorporated community in Miami County, Kansas, United States.
8. (countable, uncountable)An unincorporated community in Campbell County, Tennessee, United States.