block

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To stop something or someone from moving or making progress.

   A fallen tree blocked the road for hours.

2. 2
   verb

   To prevent something from happening.

   The committee blocked the new plan at the last minute.

3. 3
   noun

   A solid piece of hard material with flat sides.

   The children built a tower out of wooden blocks.

4. 4
   noun

   A large building divided into separate flats or rooms.

   They live in a block of flats near the station.

5. 5
   noun

   A group of related things treated as one unit.

   I reserved a large block of seats for the school trip.

Common collocations

• block a street Verb + noun
• block a road Verb + noun
• block diagram Noun + noun

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 (“block”), Old English bolca (“gangway of a ship, plank”), Old Norse bǫlkr (“divider, partition”). More at balk. See also bloc, bulk.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images