How do you use the word "block" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "block": Have you met the new family on the block? Bob's really a chip off the old block.

Block Meaning

/blɒk/

Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounA substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

nounA substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance., A chopping block: a cuboid base for cutting or beheading.

Sentence Examples

Have you met the new family on the block?

Bob's really a chip off the old block.

She lives in a tower block on an estate in London.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

bar stop cube

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

She used a large wooden ____ to keep the door open.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The heavy wood was used to ____ the entrance to the old cave city.

Word Origin & History

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.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year." — 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

"Next morning, Monday, after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber, for a block, I settled my own and comrade’s bill; using, however, my comrade’s money." — 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 13”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

"He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block." — 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:

"She said, 'I hope I shall not be left to kill myself, but It would be no more sin to kill me, than to put a block on the fire.'" — 1833, The Gospel Anchor, volume 2, page 371:

""Aye," said the farmer putting another block on the fire as he spoke […]" — 1803, Mary Tighe, Selena:

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