BLOCK OUT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Block out

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/blɑk aʊt/ Listen

verb

Block v. t. (past & past part. blocked; pres. part. blocking)

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; to block an entrance. "With moles... would block the port." "A city... besieged and blocked about."

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.

To shape on, or stamp with, a block; as, to block a hat.

To cause (any activity) to halt by creating an obstruction; as, to block a nerve impulse; to block a biochemical reaction with a drug.

To block out, to begin to reduce to shape; to mark out roughly; to lay out; to outline; as, to block out a plan.

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Etymology of 'Block out'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Block out" Quotes from Famous Books

... encounterings, and motions, Because, by reason of their forms unlike And varied shapes, they could not all thuswise Remain conjoined nor harmoniously Have interplay of movements. But from there Portions began to fly asunder, and like With like to join, and to block out a world, And to divide its members and dispose Its mightier parts—that is, to set secure The lofty heavens from the lands, and cause The sea to spread with waters separate, And fires of ether separate and pure Likewise ...

— Of The Nature of Things • [Titus Lucretius Carus] Lucretius

... before failure comes. The seed is not only covered and germinating, but has actually begun to be fruitful. The thorns are supposed to have been cut down, but their roots have been left, and they grow faster than the wheat. They take the 'goodness' out of the ground, and block out sun and air; and so the stalks, which promised well, begin to get pale and droop, and the half-formed ear comes to nothing, or, as the other version of the parable has it, brings 'forth no fruit to perfection.' There are two crops fighting for the upper hand on ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Mark • Alexander Maclaren

... clear, to see to read for an hour before and an hour after midday. Then there is the light given by the moon and stars, and lastly the cheering glow of the aurora borealis,or northern lights. It is not, therefore, always dark, though when snow falls or the clouds block out the sky the darkness becomes intense. At such times the picture is truly ...

— Peeps at Many Lands: Norway • A.F. Mockler-Ferryman

... true man did not run away under fire, nor a brave one block out a task and then shudder and slink away, when he stood off and saw the immensity of the thing that he had undertaken. Besides all these considerations, which in themselves formed insuperable reasons against retreat, there had been some big talk into ...

— The Rustler of Wind River • G. W. Ogden

... they talked still farther about the unhappy case, "how much easier is prevention than cure! How much easier to keep a stumbling-block out of another's way than to set him on his feet after he has fallen! ...

— Danger - or Wounded in the House of a Friend • T. S. Arthur