Search the Dictionary

f wood, stone, etc., usually with one or more plane, or approximately plane, faces; as, a block on which a butcher chops his meat; a block by which to mount a horse; children's playing blocks, etc. Now all our neighbors' chimneys smoke, And Christmas blocks are burning. Wither. All her labor was but as a block Left in…

A book printed from engraved wooden blocks instead of movable types.

A chain in which the alternate links are broad blocks connected by thin side links pivoted to the ends of the blocks, used with sprocket wheels to transmit power, as in a bicycle.

One of the danger signals or safety signals which guide the movement of trains in a block system. The signal is often so coupled with a switch that act of opening or closing the switch operates the signal also.

f electric, or combined electric and pneumatic, signals that no train enters a section or block until the preceding train has left it, as in absolute blocking, or that a train may be allowed to follow another into a block as long as it proceeds with excessive caution, as in permissive blocking.

See under Tin.

, with the purpose of preventing ingress or egress, or the reception of supplies; as, the blockade of the ports of an enemy.

One who blockades.

The act of blocking up; the state of being blocked up.

A stupid fellow; a dolt; a person deficient in understanding. The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head. Pope.

Stupid; dull.

That which characterizes a blockhead; stupidity. Carlyle.

An edifice or structure of heavy timbers or logs for military defense, having its sides loopholed for musketry, and often an upper story projecting over the lower, or so placed upon it as to have its sides make an angle wit the sides of the lower story, thus enabling the defenders to fire downward, and in all direction…

The act of obstructing, supporting, shaping, or stamping with a block or blocks.

The finishing course of a wall showing above a cornice.

Like a block; deficient in understanding; stupid; dull. "Blockish Ajax." Shak. -- Block"ish*ly, adv. -- Block"ish*ness, n.

Like a block; stupid.

A nearly cubical block of some tough stone, esp. granite, used as a material for street pavements. Its usual diameter is 5 to 7 inches.

The movable piece which closes the breech of a breech-loading firearm, and resists the backward force of the discharge. It is withdrawn for the insertion of a cartridge, and closed again before the gun is fired.

A block in which two or more trains are permitted to travel, under restrictions imposed by a caution card or the like.