[f. BLOCK v., on the pattern of words in -ADE from Fr. The Fr. equivalent blocus dates to 16th c. Blockade sb. must have been used before 1684, when the vb. appears.]
1. The shutting up of a place, blocking of a harbor, line of coast, frontier, etc., by hostile forces or ships, so as to stop ingress and egress, and prevent the entrance of provisions and ammunition, in order to compel a surrender from hunger or want, without a regular attack. Paper blockade: one that is declared by a belligerent party to exist, but is not effective.
1693. Mem. Ct. Teckely, III. 55. This Blockade was turn’d into a formal Siege in the beginning of March.
1775. R. Montgomery, in Sparks, Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853), I. 485. Were a blockade alone to be the measure adopted.
1836. Macgillivray, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., iii. 42. On account of the blockade by the English.
1863. Ld. Russell, Let. Mr. Mason (Bernard 293). The Declaration of Paris was in truth directed against what were once termed ‘paper blockades,’ that is, blockades not sustained by any actual force, or sustained by a notoriously inadequate naval force.
1880. W. E. Hall, Internat. Law (1884), 339. What is called pacific blockade has been used as a means of constraint short of war.
1885. Times, 20 Feb., 5/1. The coast is really only patrolled at intervals. The use of the word ‘blockade’ is, therefore, an abuse of the term.
b. To raise a blockade: to withdraw the investing forces, or to compel them to withdraw. To break a blockade: to enter a blockaded port by force. To run a blockade: to enter or leave a blockaded port by eluding the blockading force, esp. for the purpose of conveying supplies, or carrying on trade.
1810. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., VI. 349. To induce him to raise the blockade of La Puebla.
1869. Overland Monthly, 47 (title), How we ran the blockade.
2. transf. A blockading force; a party of blockade-men.
1882. Fleet, Glimpses Ancestors, Ser. I. 84. The chief boatman of the Blockade was killed.
3. transf. and fig.
1742. Pope, Dunciad, IV. 191. Broad hats and hoods, and caps, a sable shoal; Thick and more thick the black blockade extends.
1833. Macaulay, Walpole’s Lett., Ess. (1854), I. 269. The blockades laid by the Duke of A. to the hearts of the Marquise de B. and the Comtesse de C.
1835. T. Hook, G. Gurney, I. iii. 57 (L.). This was a blockade which even the ingenuity of the wit could not evade.
1881. Chicago Times, 12 March. The snow blockade told more severely in the produce trade. Ibid. (1881), 16 April. [A railway accident] causing a blockade of the road for several hours.
4. Attrib. and Comb., as blockade force; blockade-man, a member of the force employed to prevent smuggling; a coastguardsman; blockade-run, -running, the action of running a blockade; blockade-runner, a vessel that runs or attempts to run into a blockaded port; the owner, master, or one of the crew of such a vessel. (These words obtained special notoriety during the American War of Secession, when many British ships were engaged in running the blockade of Richmond and other southern ports.)
1882. Fleet, Glimpses Ancestors, Ser. I. 83. A *Blockade force of 40 men. Ibid., 82. Constant conflicts between the *blockade-men and the smugglers.
1836. Dickens, Sk. Boz (1850), 214. Blockade-man after *blockade-man had passed the spot, wending his way towards his solitary post.
1863. St. James’s Mag., VIII. 346. My first and last *blockade run.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 381. The English *blockade-runners passed through the American blockading squadron.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 371/2. Steel was … used extensively in ‘blockade-runners’ built during the American civil war.
