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.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Block entered Middle English from French bloc, itself borrowed from Middle Dutch, and originally meant a log or tree stump. By the late Middle Ages it also denoted a large piece of wood used for chopping, hammering, or beheading. English later readopted bloc for an allied group of countries in the early 20th century.

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

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary