block
part of speech
noun (block, blocks); verb (block, blocks, blocked, blocking)
meaning for a pupil
1) A block is a solid piece of wood, plastic or stone, often a cube, that children build with. tree →
2) A block is a group of buildings between streets, or a big building: «a block of flats». tree →
3) To block is to stop something from passing: «A tree blocked the road». tree →
4) In sport, a block stops the ball or a player. tree →
sense in the lessons
a toy counted, often used to build towers; blocks are used (taken away) or added; in maths, base-ten blocks show ones, tens and hundreds; phrases: «building blocks», «a block of», «around the block», «block the way»
examples
- Randy has 78 blocks. tree →
- He used 19 blocks to build a tower. tree →
- Each tower has 6 blocks. tree →
- How many more blocks did he use for the house than for the tower? tree →
- We use blocks to show tens and ones. tree →
- Our school is two blocks from my house. tree →
- A fallen tree blocked the path. tree →
- Don't block the fire door. tree →
- Oh, you in front, what is blocking the way?” tree →
note
Countable: a block, blocks. A thing counted. «used to build» often takes away from what is left, or names a part. Trap: «blocks used for the tower» and «blocks left» are different numbers. Safety: never block a fire exit.
In the corpora
- If a bank card is lost, the bank should be told at once so it can block the card.
- Banks use AI to spot unusual spending and block possible fraud; sometimes a real payment is blocked by mistake.
- The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai is a woodblock print, so many copies were made from the carved blocks.
- Sea turtles eat jellyfish, and floating plastic bags look like jellyfish, so turtles sometimes swallow plastic, which can block their stomachs.
- When the war blocked ships from Ukraine in 2022, grain and bread prices rose in many countries.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «block» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.