n. Any solid mass of matter, usually with one or more plane or approximately plane faces: as, a block of wood, stone, or ice; sometimes, specifically, a log of wood.n. A solid mass of wood the upper surface of which is used for some specific purpose.n. The piece of wood on which is placed the neck of a person condemned to be decapitated.n. A piece of hard wood prepared for cutting by an engraver.n. The stand on which a slave was placed when being sold by auction.n. In falconry, the perch whereon a bird of prey is kept.n. A mass of wood or stone used in mounting and dismounting; a horse-block.n. A mold or piece on which something is shaped, or placed to make it keep in shape.n. A wooden head for a wig; a barber's block; hence, sometimes, the wig itself.n. A person with no more sense or life than a block; a blockhead; a stupid fellow.n. In ship-building, one of the pieces of timber, or supports constructed from such pieces, upon which the keel is laid.n. The solid metal stamp used by bookbinders for impressing a design on a book-cover.n. A piece of wood fitted into the angle formed by the meeting edges of two other pieces.n. A wooden rubber covered with thick felt, used in polishing marble.n. A piece of wood or metal serving as a support.n. A mechanical contrivance consisting of one or more grooved pulleys mounted in a casing or shell, which is furnished with a hook, eye, or strap by which it may be attached: it is used to transmit power, or change the direction of motion, by means of a rope or chain passing round the movable pulleys.n. A connected mass of buildings: as, a block of houses.n. A portion of a city inclosed by streets, whether occupied by buildings or consisting of vacant lots.n. On the stock-exchange, a large number of shares massed together and bought or sold in a lump.To strengthen or support by blocks; make firm, as two boards at their inferior angle of intersection, by pieces of wood glued together.To form into blocks.To mold, shape, or stretch on a block: as, to block a hat.In bookbinding, to ornament by means of brass stamps; stamp: as, to block the boards of a book.In calico-printing, to press up or apply to the blocks containing the colors.To straighten and toughen by laying on a block of wood and striking with a narrow, flat-faced hammer; planish: said of saw-blades.n. Any obstruction or cause of obstruction; a stop; a hindrance; an obstacle.n. Hence The state of being blocked or stopped up; a stoppage, as of carriages: as, a block on a railway; a block in the street.To hinder passage from or to; prevent ingress or egress; stop up; obstruct by placing obstacles in the way: often followed by up: as, to block up a town or a road.In base-ball and cricket, to stop (a ball) with the bat without knocking it to a distance.In foot-ball, to stop (a player) when running with the ball.n. A block-like form of castiron or steel used by angle-smiths in shipbuilding instead of an anvil. They are of various shapes and are named from their special uses, as splitting-blocks, bending-blocks, welding-blocks, joggling-and-offsetting blocks, etc.n. Hence — The engraving or plate itself.n. One of the sections into which the colonies of Australia are divided. See back-blocks.n. In railroading, the space or distance on a track between two signals; one of the short divisions into which a railroad is divided for signaling purposes, irrespective of the particular signal-system employed. See block-signal, and signaling.n. In ceramics, the original model from which the block-mold is cast. See block-mold.n. In geology, a portion of the earth's crust separated by fracture from the adjacent parts, and usually uplifted or depressed with respect to them.n. In violin-making, a triangular piece of wood within one of the projecting corners of the waist, to which the ribs, belly, and back are glued and by which the solidity and strength of the whole is largely secured. Usually called corner-block.n. In forestry, the unit of management treated in a working-plan. A block contains always two, but usually many more, compartments.n. In stock-raising, any animal of a stocky, stout, compact, and well-made form: opposed to a loosely formed or rangy animal.n. In irrigation, the method of applying water to the ground within small, regularly placed levees or dikes.To secure (an electrotype or photo-engraved plate) upon a block of wood or metal, to make it type-high.In sugar-beet growing, to remove, by the hoe or a machine, sections from thickly sown rows so as to leave blocks or bunches from 6 to 10 inches apart, which are then thinned by hand to one plant each; to bunch.n. In cricket: A batsman's guard; the position in which he holds his bat upon the ground previous to striking.n. A block-hole.n. The stopping with the bat of a ball which is pitched in the block-hole.n. A batsman who acts entirely on the defensive.In card-playing, to hold up a high card in order to prevent an adversary from making smaller ones later on.