block

Meanings

Noun

• A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.
• A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or approximately rectangular.
• A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.
• A contiguous group of urban lots of property, typically several acres in extent, not crossed by public streets.
• A roughly cuboid building.
• Something that prevents something from passing.
• The human head.
• Solitary confinement.
• A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt.
• Misspelling of bloc

Verb

• To fill or obstruct (something) so that it is not possible to pass.
• To prevent (something or someone) from passing.
• To prevent (something from happening or someone from doing something).
• To impede (an opponent or opponent's play).
• To specify the positions and movements of the actors for (a section of a play or film).
• To hit with a block.
• To play a block shot.
• To bar (someone undesirable) from connecting via telephone, instant messaging, etc., or from accessing an online account or service, or similar.
• To bar (a message or communication), or bar connection with (an online account or service, a designated telephone number, IP address, etc.).
• To wait for some condition to become true.
• To stretch or mould (a knitted item, a hat, etc.) into the desired shape.
• To shape or sketch out roughly.
• To knock (a person's hat) down over their eyes.

Related

Similar words

• city block

Origin

• 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"). Cognate with Old Frisian blok, Old Saxon blok, Old High German bloh, bloc, Old English bolca ("gangway of a ship, plank"), Old Norse bǫlkr ("divider, partition"). More at balk. See also bloc.