Defn: The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.
8. Any obstruction, or cause of obstruction; a stop; a hindrance; an obstacle; as, a block in the way.
9. A piece of box or other wood for engravers' work.
10. (Print.)
Defn: A piece of hard wood (as mahogany or cherry) on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted to make it type high.
11. A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt. [Obs.] What a block art thou ! Shak.
12. A section of a railroad where the block system is used. See Block system, below. A block of shares (Stock Exchange), a large number of shares in a stock company, sold in a lump. Bartlett. — Block printing. (a) A mode of printing (common in China and Japan) from engraved boards by means of a sheet of paper laid on the linked surface and rubbed with a brush. S. W. Williams. (b) A method of printing cotton cloth and paper hangings with colors, by pressing them upon an engraved surface coated with coloring matter. — Block system on railways, a system by which the track is divided into sections of three or four miles, and trains are so run by the guidance of electric signals that no train enters a section or block before the preceding train has left it.
BLOCK
Block, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Blocked; p. pr. & vb. n. Blocking.] Etym:
[Cf. F. bloquer, fr. bloc block. See Block, n.]
1. To obstruct so as to prevent passage or progress; to prevent passage from, through, or into, by obstructing the way; — used both of persons and things; — often followed by up; as, to block up a road or harbor. With moles . . . would block the port. Rowe. A city . . . besieged and blocked about. Milton.
2. To secure or support by means of blocks; to secure, as two boards at their angles of intersection, by pieces of wood glued to each.