Forms: 4–5 blok, 5 blokke, 5–7 blocke, 6 block. [In sense 1, app. a ME. adoption of F. bloc, of same meaning; but in senses 17–20 taken directly from BLOCK v. OF. bloc is, according to Diez and Littré, a. OHG. bloh. (MHG. bloch, mod.Ger. block) in same sense (MDu. bloc, Du. blok, MLG. block, Sw. block, Da. blok), the origin of which is uncertain. Grimm and others identify it with MHG. bloch, OHG. biloh (MDu. beloc, beloke) ‘closure, obstruction, shut place,’ referred to bi-lûkan, f. lûkan to close, shut. Kluge considers it a distinct word, and possibly related farther back to balk BALK.]
I. A solid piece of wood.
1. A log of wood; part of the trunk of a tree, a stump.
c. 1305. Leg. Rood (1871), 141. Whon crist was knit with corde on a stok His bodi bledde a-ȝein þat blok.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 314. This king … made … Of grete shides and of blockes Great fire.
1481. Caxton, Reynard (Arb.), 27. They … drewe hym ouer stones and ouer blockes wythout the village.
1552. Huloet, Blocke, truncus.
1594. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., II. 131. [No] more motion or feeling then is in a blocke or stone.
1830. Disraeli, Home Lett., x. 84. I looked at the wood fire and thought of the blazing blocks in the hall at Bradenham.
1884. Froude, Carlyle, II. xxiii. 176. Sitting patient on a big block—huge stump of a tree-root.
b. Often used in similes as a type of inertia, senselessness, stupidity. Cf. sense 15: also POST.
c. 1410. Sir Cleges, 440. He yaffe the styward sech a stroke, That he fell dovn as a bloke.
1678. Ripley Reviv’d, 383. They are as stupid as Blocks.
1718. Pope, Auth. Successio, 10. When you like Orpheus, strike the warbling lyre, Attentive blocks stand round you and admire.
1875. Buckland, Log-Bk., 68. As deaf as a block.
† c. contemptuously. An idol, a ‘stock.’
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M. (1596), 1340/1. His great God was not exalted … ouer the aultar, nor his blocke almighty set seemely in the roode loft.
† d. Contrasted with ‘straw’ in some obsolete proverbial phrases. Cf. sense 11: also BEAM and MOTE. Obs.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 93. Lest of a strawe we make a blocke.
1551. Cranmer, Answ. Bp. Gardiner, 201 (T.). You can spy a little mote in another mans eye, that cannot see a great block in your own.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 76. Ye stumbled at a strawe, and lept ouer a blocke.
† 2. The stump or trunk of a figure without the limbs.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam. v. 5. The block laie there onely.
3. A large solid piece of wood, of which the top or surface is used for various operations.
a. A piece of wood on which a butcher chops his meat, or on which firewood is cut, or which is used for beetling or hammering on, or otherwise in various mechanical crafts. Between the beetle and the block: see BEETLE1 1 c.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), i. 157. If I fynde n yong child I shall choppe it on a blokke.
1766. Entick, London, IV. 65. Stalls for butchers, with … blocks.
1849. Dickens, Dav. Copp., xix. He looked such a very obdurate butcher as he stood scraping the great block.
b. The piece of wood on which the condemned were beheaded or mutilated.
1541. Act 33 Hen. VIII., xii. § 18. The serieant … shal bring to the said place of execucion a blocke with a betill a staple & cordes to binde the saide hande vpon the blocke.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., IV. ii. 122. Some guard these Traitors to the Block of Death.
a. 1674. Clarendon, Hist. Reb. (1704), III. XIV. 384. He laid down his head upon the Block.
1829. H. Neele, Lit. Rem., 25. The sovereign who sent Raleigh to the block.
1876. Green, Short Hist., vii. § 1 (1882), 341. It was by bills of attainder … that the great nobles were brought to the block.
c. A stump by which to mount, or dismount from, a horse. Also fig.
1614. Markham, Cheap Husb., I. ii. (1668), 12. Observing to mount and dismount at the block only.
a. 1659. Osborn, Observ. Turks, iii. (1673), 265. The promoters of Sedition, are seldom found to take Horse at any other block than what they perceive the People aptest to stumble at.
1841. Orderson, Creol., viii. 76. [He] rode dashingly up to the block.
d. The stump on which a slave stood when being sold by auction.
1853. Chamb. Jrnl., Oct., 39. Boy mounts the block … the auctioneer kindly lends him a hand.
1866. Bryant, Death Slavery, vii. There shall the grim block remain, At which the slave was sold.
e. A falcon’s perch.
1844. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club., II. 97. The hawk … was soon receiving … a good meal of beef upon her block.
4. A piece of wood or other substance on which something is molded, shaped or fashioned: spec. a. A mold for a hat.
1575. Gascoigne, Hearbes, Weedes, etc. Wks. (1587), 154. A coptanke hat made on a Flemish block.
1604. Dekker, Honest Wh., I. xiii. Wks. 1873, II. 79. We have blockes for all heads.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), II. 217. His Head is, like his Hat, fashioned upon a Block.
1858. Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 81. Wolsey’s hat … might have been made on the same block.
Hence b. fig. Shape, style, fashion (of hat).
1580. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 323. A hat of the … best block in al Italy.
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, I. i. 77. He weares his faith but as the fashion of his hat, it euer changes with ye next block.
1612. Rowlands, More Knaues Yet, 6. Hats of newest blocke.
1820. Scott, Abbot, xxv. A beaver hat of the newest block.
c. Barber’s block: a wooden head for a wig.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. xviii. 464. A Finishing Block is a Wooden head set on a Stand, on which the rounds of hair are sowed on the Cawl.
1754. Connoisseur, No. 36. Their heads … have worn as many different kinds of wigs as the block at their barber’s.
a. 1843. Southey, Ep. A. Cunningham, Wks. III. 318. From such a barber … was that portrait made, I think, or per adventure from his block.
d. transf. A head. (slang.)
1635. Shirley, Lady of Pleas., II. i. Buy a beaver For thy own block.
e. generally. A substratum or core.
1691. Ray, Creation, I. (1704), 119. To serve as a Form or Block to sustain the succeeding annual Coat.
5. Mechanics. A pulley or system of pulleys mounted in a case, used to increase the mechanical power of the ropes running through them; employed esp. for the rigging of ships, and in lifting great weights. They take various names from their shape, position, or use, as fiddle block, sister block, etc.
1622. Malynes, Anc. Law-Merch., 143. Damages sustained by bad Hookes, Ropes, Blockes, or Lines.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 19. Blocks or Pullies are thick peeces of wood hauing shiuers in them.
1752. Smeaton, Tackle, in Phil. Trans., XLVII. 494. An inconvenience arises, if above 3 pullies are framed in one block.
1762. Falconer, Shipwr., II. 58. Thro’ rattling blocks the clue-lines swiftly run.
1824. W. Irving, T. Trav., II. 236. The stump of a mast, with a few ropes and blocks swinging about.
b. Naut. phrase. Block and block (see quot.).
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., v. 19. When we hale any Tackle or Haleyard to which two blocks doe belong, when they meet, we call that blocke and blocke.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Block and block, the situation of a tackle when the two opposite blocks are drawn close together, so that the … power becomes destroyed.
6. A piece of wood which acts as a support:
a. Carpentry. A square piece of wood glued into the angle at a joint to strengthen it; = BLOCKING 3.
b. A piece of scantling for elevating cannon; called a whole, half, or quarter block, according to its thickness.
c. A frame to support the end of a log in a saw-mill.
d. Carriage-making (see quot.).
1801. Felton, Carriages, I. 120. Those platforms, raisers, or blocks, are added to a carriage, either as matter of necessity or appearance … their use is to elevate and support the budget, boot, hind foot-board, and springs.
7. A piece of wood on which lines, letters or figures are engraved, in order to be printed from it in ink or colors on paper, calico, etc., or to be stamped by pressure on any yielding surface.
1732. S. Palmer, Hist. Printing, vi. (title), An enquiry into the first books printed on blocks of wood.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Cutting, The cutters in wood begin by preparing a plank or block.
1780. R. Burrow, Comp. Ladies Diary, 6. Engraving wooden blocks for printing pictures with the letter-press.
1837. Whittock, Bk. Trades (1842), 94. [Calico-printer] They have from the earliest period used blocks and stencils to produce the pattern.
1880. Print. Trades Jrnl., xxx. 10. Printed in four colors, from engraved blocks.
8. Various solid pieces of wood about a ship: see quots.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 97. Block. The large piece of elm out of which the figure is carved at the head of the ship.
Blocks for building the ship are those solid pieces of oak timber fixed under the ship’s keel, upon the groundways….
Blocks for transporting the ship are two solid pieces of oak or elm, one fixed on each side of the stern above the taffrail, and a snatch with a large score cut each way in the middle.
a. 1856. Longf., Build. Ship, 95. Thus, said he, we will build this ship! Lay square the blocks upon the slip.
† 9. The peg or ‘hob’ aimed at in throwing quoits; the ‘Jack’ at bowls. Obs.
1598. Florio, Buttiro, a maister or mistres of boules or coites, whereat the plaiers cast or play: some call it the blocke.
II. A bulky piece of any substance.
10. gen. Any solid or compact mass of matter with an extended surface.
1530. Palsgr., 199/1. Blocke of tynne, savmon destain.
1577. Harrison, Descr. Brit., v. 12. These huge blocks were ordeined and created of God.
1670. J. Claridge, Sheph. Banbury’s Rules (1744), 38. A block of this kind of stone as big as a large rolling stone.
1758. Borlase, Nat. Hist. Cornwall, xv. § 18. 182. The metal when hardened is called a block of tin.
1799. Kirwan, Geol. Ess., 166. Granite is most commonly found in huge blocks.
1813. Gentl. Mag., LXXXIII. I. 609/2. A square block of masonry has been raised to support the stone.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 2. 17. The more solid blocks of ice shoot forward in advance of the lighter débris.
b. A large quantity of anything dealt with at once. Hence In block: in the mass, as a whole, ‘wholesale’; = Fr. en bloc.
1876. Holland, Sev. Oaks, xxiv. 331. The combination began by selling large blocks of the Stock for future delivery.
1876. Gladstone, in Contemp. Rev., June, 3. Those English Puritans of the seventeenth century, who rejected in block the authority of creeds, tests, and formularies.
11. A lump of wood, stone, or other matter, that obstructs one’s way; a bar; fig. an obstacle or obstruction, Now only in stumbling-block.
a. 1500. Songs & Carols 15th C. (Wright), 81 (Mätz). Ale mak many a mane to stombyle at the blokkes.
1573. G. Harvey, Lett.-Bk. (1884), 32. I tould him there was a certain block in the wai.
1597. J. Payne, Royal Exch., 38. At which common block many weakelings do stumble.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., I. xv. (1739), 29. This was … a block in the way of Prelacy, and a clog to keep it down.
a. 1718. Penn, Life, Wks. 1726, I. 2. A Block in the Way to Preferment.
1845. Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., I. 531. By maintaining these passages he laid a stumbling block in his own path.
12. spec. a. A mass or lump of rock or stone in its natural or unhewn state. Erratic block, a boulder transported by physical agencies far from its native site.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, vii. All her labour was but as a block Left in the quarry.
1851. Ruskin, Stones Ven. (1874), I. i. 19. The glacier stream[s] of the Lombards and … Normans left their erratic blocks wherever they had flowed.
1872. Jenkinson, Guide Eng. Lakes (1879), 149. The Bowder Crag from which the immense block has fallen, is directly above.
b. A solid piece of stone, etc., prepared for building purposes; also the ‘bricks’ with which children build toy-houses.
c. 1854. Longf., Builders, iii. Our to-days and yesterdays Are the blocks with which we build.
1885. R. L. Stevenson, Child’s Garden, 63, Block City. What are you able to build with your blocks, Castles and palaces, temples and docks?
† 13. A whetstone. Obs.
1592. Greene, Groatsw. Wit (1617), 28. He serued but for a blocke to whet Robertoes wit on.
14. A compact or connected mass of houses or buildings, with no intervening spaces; (esp. in U.S. and Canada) the quadrangular mass of buildings included between four streets, or two ‘avenues’ and two streets at right angles to them. b. A portion of a town or space of ground so bounded, whether occupied by buildings or not.
1851. Househ. Narrative, March, 69. The blocks … are rapidly filling up by the erection upon them of large houses.
1855. Act 18 & 19 Vict., cxx. § 74. A group or block of contiguous houses … may be drained more economically … in combination.
1882. Freeman, in Longm. Mag., I. 89. American towns are built in blocks.
1884. Boston (Mass.) Journal, 12 Sept. When the matinee between brother and sister had closed Blossum was about two blocks away.
III. Figurative senses.
15. A person resembling a block or log of wood:
a. in unintelligence: A blockhead. b. in want of feeling: A hard-hearted person.
a. 1553. Udall, Royster D., III. iii. Ye are suche a calfe, suche an asse, such a blocke.
1601. Shaks., Jul. C., I. i. 40. You Blockes, you stones, you worse than senslesse things.
1682. N. O., trans. Boileau’s Lutrin, II. 16. See how the Stupid Block stands mute, and moping!
1803. Bristed, Pedest. Tour, II. 661. In vain we endeavoured to move the compassion of these two blocks in female shape.
1810. Tannahill, Poems (1846), 88. The greatest dunce, the biggest block.
16. Phrases. A chip of the (same or) old block: a piece of the same stuff, a descendant reproducing the qualities of a parent or ancestor. As deaf (etc.) as a block: (see 1 b.) To cut blocks with a razor: (a metaphor describing absurdly incongruous and futile application of abilities or means: 13).
1627. Sanderson, Serm., I. 283. Am not I a child of the same Adam, a vessel of the same clay, a chip of the same block, with him?
1655. H. L’Estrange, Chas. I., 126. Episcopacy, which they thought but a great chip of the old block Popery.
1774. Goldsm., Retal., 42. ’Twas his fate unemployed or in place, sir, To eat mutton cold and cut blocks with a razor.
IV. Senses from BLOCK v.
† 17. ‘A scheme, contrivance; generally used in a bad sense.’ (Jamieson.) Sc. Obs.
1513. Douglas, Æneis, V. xi. 12. Rolling in mynd full mony cankarit bloik.
† 18. A bargain, bartering, exchange. Sc. Obs.
1568. Sempill Ballates (1872), 232. Abydand on sum merchand blok.
1637. Rutherford, Lett., cxx. (1862), I. 300. What a sweet block was it by way of buying and selling, to give and tell down a ransome … for grace and glory to dyvours!
a. 1800. Ballad ‘Fair Isabell,’ xvi. in Child’s Ballads, III. (1885), 216/2. So many blocks have we two made, And ay the worst was mine.
19. A blocking up. a. An obstruction or stoppage of traffic or progress. b. The obstruction of the free passage of a bill through the House of Commons: see quot.
1860. W. G. Clark, Vac. Tour (1861), 18–9. Naples is the only Continental capital which is liable to ‘blocks’ such as occur in the thoroughfares in London.
1863. Cornh. Mag., Feb. Life Man-of-War, 182. It is after you have become lieutenant, that the ‘block’ makes itself felt, and the true weariness which turns so many men into habitual grumblers begins.
1882. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 July, 2/2. What is the practical effect of the notice that a bill will be opposed—which is what is known as a block? Simply this, that it prevents any stage of a bill being taken during (1) the last ten minutes of a morning sitting, or (2) the last fifteen minutes of a Wednesday afternoon sitting, or (3) after half-past twelve o’clock at any other sitting.
c. Block system (on Railways): a system by which the line is divided into short sections, having at the end of each a signal, and a connection with the electric telegraph, so worked that no train is allowed to pass into any section till it is wholly clear; thus securing an absolute interval of space between successive trains. So block signal, block signalling, block instrument, etc.
1864. Realm, 29 June, 1. The only remedy for the danger is the adoption of what is technically called the ‘block system.’
1865. Lond. Rev., 18 March, 309. Mr. William Henry Preece … recommends the adoption, in connection with the electric telegraph, of the ‘block system’ of ensuring the safety of railway trains.
1882. Oracle, 20 May, 313. The method of working electric block-signals…. Mr. Tyer produced his first block-signalling instrument in 1852. Ibid. A modification of the single needle as a block instrument.
20. Cricket. The position in which a batsman blocks balls; that in which he holds his bat in front of the wicket before striking, otherwise called the centre; hence block-hole (or shortly block), a mark made in the ground to indicate this position.
Mod. The ball pitched right in his block. He asked the umpire to give him block.
V. Attrib. and Comb.
21. attrib. or adj. Taken in the block, aggregate, lump.
1864. Ld. Lyttelton, in Morn. Star, 22 Jan., 3/6. The first cost requires a block sum, which … is just what the working classes cannot command.
22. General comb., chiefly attrib., as block-coal, -ice, -shot, -stone; (sense 5) block-maker, -pulley, -sheave, -strop; block-faced, -like adjs.
1751. Smollett, Per. Pic. (1779), I. v. 37. A squinting, *block-faced, chattering piss-kitchen.
1881. Chicago Times, 4 June. *Block ice is never created in the river rapids to clog or impede machinery.
1561. J. Heywood, Seneca’s Hercules (1581), 16. Her head from *blocklyke body gone Is quight.
1861. L. L. Noble, Icebergs, 85. Numbers of block-like bergs.
a. 1687. Petty, Pol. Arith. (1690), 78. Many Artisans … are employed upon Shipping: viz. Painters, *Block-makers, Rope-makers.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 122, note. An ingenious blockmaker at Plymouth.
1884. G. W. Sheldon, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 220/2. The block-maker and sail-maker each a sixteenth [ownership of a vessel].
1864. Chambers, Bk. of Days, II. 684. [Brunel’s] plan for making *block-pulleys for ships by machinery.
1883. Fisheries Exhib. Cat., 42. Projectile Anchors, Cone *Block Shot to throw Rove Rope or Messenger Line.
1879. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit., I. 270. If he used *blockstone … he studied to use [it] so as to look well.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), E iij. It is bound with a sort of rope-ring … which is called a *block strop.
23. Special comb. Block-battery (see quot.); block-brush, a bunch of BUTCHER’S-BROOM, used by butchers to clean the blocks, and borne in the insignia of their Company; block-chopper, a workman who trims a block of stone; block-cutter, an artificer who cuts in relief the blocks used in printing or engraving (see sense 7); block-flute (see quot.); block-furnace = BLOOMERY; block-letters, printing-types of large size cut out of wooden blocks; block-machine, a machine for making the ‘blocks’ associated with ‘tackle’ in ships; so block-machinery; block-ornament (slang) = BLOCKER 3; block-pate = BLOCKHEAD; block-printing, printing from wooden blocks, instead of movable types, as in the BLOCK-BOOKS, now also used for printing calico, paper-hangings, etc.; so block-printed a.; block-ship, a ship moored to block the entrance to a harbor, an old man of war used as a store-ship, etc.; block-tin, see TIN; † block-wheat, buckwheat.
1802. C. James, Mil. Dict. (1816), 54/1. *Block-battery, in gunnery, a wooden battery for two or more small pieces mounted on wheels, and moveable from place to place.
1883. Stonemason, Jan. It is then trimmed (or scalped) into shape by men called *‘block-choppers,’ who adroitly wield heavy axes.
1859. Chadwick, in Smiles, Workmen’s Earnings (1861), 21. *Block-cutters and printers in calico-printing.
1852. Seidel, Organ, 91. *Block-flute … is a flue-register sometimes open, sometimes stopped, and … imitates the tone of a flute.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, I. 52. They buy *block-ornaments … as they call the small dark-coloured pieces of meat exposed on the … butchers’ blocks.
1598. R. Bernard, Terence (1607), 251. To be called a *blockpate, a dulhead, an asse, a lumpish sot.
1816. Singer, Hist. Cards, 75, note. The Portuguese Missionaries on their first visit to Japan, in 1549, found the art of *block printing in use there.
1883. Standard, 26 Jan., 3/2. Mere *block-printed papers.
1801. Hist. Europe, in Ann. Reg., 113/1. There was not on board their *Block ships a single surgeon.
1611. Cotgr., Dragee aux chevaux, *blocke-wheat or bolimong.
