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a. [ Gr. &unr_;, &unr_;, fr. &unr_; an abortion. ] Tending to cause abortion. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } v. t. To make bloody; to stain with blood. [ Obs. ] Sheldon. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To blot; to stain. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

. An oblong, often nearly cubical, block of some tough stone, esp. granite, used as a material for street pavements. Its usual diameter is 5 to 7 inches. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. To dry (herrings) in smoke. See Blote. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bloated; p. pr. & vb. n. Bloating. ] [ Cf. Icel. blotna to become soft, blautr soft, wet, Sw. blöt soft, blöta to soak; akin to G. bloss bare, and AS. bleát wretched; or perh. fr. root of Eng. 5th blow. Cf. Blote. ] 1. To make turgid, as with water or air; to cause a swelling of the surface of, from effusion of serum in the cellular tissue, producing a morbid enlargement, often accompanied with softness. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To inflate; to puff up; to make vain. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To grow turgid as by effusion of liquid in the cellular tissue; to puff out; to swell. Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Bloated. [ R. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A term of contempt for a worthless, dissipated fellow. [ Slang ] [ 1913 Webster ]

p. a. Distended beyond the natural or usual size, as by the presence of water, serum, etc.; turgid; swollen; as, a bloated face. Also, puffed up with pride; pompous. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being bloated. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Bloat, Blote. ] The common herring, esp. when of large size, smoked, and half dried; -- called also bloat herring. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Bleb. ] 1. Something blunt and round; a small drop or lump of something viscid or thick; a drop; a bubble; a blister. Wright. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) A small fresh-water fish (Uranidea Richardsoni); the miller's thumb. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Blubber, Blub. ] A bubble; blubber. [ Low ] T. Carew. [ 1913 Webster ]

Blobber lip, a thick, protruding lip. [ 1913 Webster ]

His blobber lips and beetle brows commend. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Having thick lips. “A blobber-lipped shell.” Grew. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. [ F. ] (Arch.) The roughest and cheapest sort of rubblework, in masonry. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. blok; cf. F. bloc (fr. OHG.), D. & Dan. blok, Sw. & G. block, OHG. bloch. There is also an OHG. bloch, biloh; bi by + the same root as that of E. lock. Cf. Block, v. t., Blockade, and see Lock. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. A piece of wood more or less bulky; a solid mass of wood, stone, etc., usually with one or more plane, or approximately plane, faces; as, a block on which a butcher chops his meat; a block by which to mount a horse; children's playing blocks, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

Now all our neighbors' chimneys smoke,
And Christmas blocks are burning. Wither. [ 1913 Webster ]

All her labor was but as a block
Left in the quarry. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The solid piece of wood on which condemned persons lay their necks when they are beheaded. [ 1913 Webster ]

Noble heads which have been brought to the block. E. Everett. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The wooden mold on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped. Hence: The pattern or shape of a hat. [ 1913 Webster ]

He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A large or long building divided into separate houses or shops, or a number of houses or shops built in contact with each other so as to form one building; a row of houses or shops. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. A square, or portion of a city inclosed by streets, whether occupied by buildings or not. [ 1913 Webster ]

The new city was laid out in rectangular blocks, each block containing thirty building lots. Such an average block, comprising 282 houses and covering nine acres of ground, exists in Oxford Street. Lond. Quart. Rev. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A grooved pulley or sheave incased in a frame or shell which is provided with a hook, eye, or strap, by which it may be attached to an object. It is used to change the direction of motion, as in raising a heavy object that can not be conveniently reached, and also, when two or more such sheaves are compounded, to change the rate of motion, or to exert increased force; -- used especially in the rigging of ships, and in tackles. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. (Falconry) The perch on which a bird of prey is kept. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. Any obstruction, or cause of obstruction; a stop; a hindrance; an obstacle; -- also called blockage; as, a block in the way; a block in an artery; a block in a nerve; a block in a biochemical pathway. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. A piece of box or other wood for engravers' work. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. (Print.) A piece of hard wood (as mahogany or cherry) on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted to make it type high. [ 1913 Webster ]

11. A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

What a block art thou ! Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

12. A section of a railroad where the block system is used. See Block system, below. [ 1913 Webster ]

13. In Australia, one of the large lots into which public land, when opened to settlers, is divided by the government surveyors. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

14. (Cricket) (a) The position of a player or bat when guarding the wicket. (b) A block hole. (c) The popping crease. [ R. ] [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

15. a number of individual items sold as a unit; as, a block of airline ticketes; a block of hotel rooms; a block of stock. [ PJC ]

16. the length of one side of a city block{ 5 }, traversed along any side; as, to walk three blocks ahead and turn left at the corner. [ PJC ]

17. a halt in a mental process, especially one due to stress, memory lapse, confusion, etc.; as, a writer's block; to have a block in remembering a name. [ PJC ]

18. (computers) a quantity of binary-encoded information transferred, or stored, as a unit to, from, or on a data storage device; as, to divide a disk into 512-byte blocks. [ PJC ]

19. (computers) a number of locations in a random-access memory allocated to storage of specific data; as, to allocate a block of 1024 bytes for the stack. [ PJC ]

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. --
Back blocks, Australian pastoral country which is remote from the seacoast or from a river. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Blocked p. pr. & vb. n. Blocking. ] [ 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; to block an entrance. [ 1913 Webster ]

With moles . . . would block the port. Rowe. [ 1913 Webster ]

A city . . . besieged and blocked about. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To shape on, or stamp with, a block; as, to block a hat. [ 1913 Webster ]

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

To block out, to begin to reduce to shape; to mark out roughly; to lay out; to outline; as, to block out a plan. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. It. bloccata. See Block, v. t. ] 1. The shutting up of a place by troops or ships, with the purpose of preventing ingress or egress, or the reception of supplies; as, the blockade of the ports of an enemy. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Blockade is now usually applied to an investment with ships or vessels, while siege is used of an investment by land forces. To constitute a blockade, the investing power must be able to apply its force to every point of practicable access, so as to render it dangerous to attempt to enter; and there is no blockade of that port where its force can not be brought to bear. Kent. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An obstruction to passage. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (physiology) interference with transmission of a physiological signal, or a physiological reaction. [ PJC ]

To raise a blockade. See under Raise. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Blockaded; p. pr. & vb. n. Blockading. ] 1. To shut up, as a town or fortress, by investing it with troops or vessels or war for the purpose of preventing ingress or egress, or the introduction of supplies. See note under Blockade, n. “Blockaded the place by sea.” Gilpin. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence, to shut in so as to prevent egress. [ 1913 Webster ]

Till storm and driving ice blockade him there. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To obstruct entrance to or egress from. [ 1913 Webster ]

Huge bales of British cloth blockade the door. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. having access obstructed by emplacement of a barrier, or by threat of force.
Syn. -- barricaded, barred. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. 1. One who blockades. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Naut.) A vessel employed in blockading. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of blocking up; the state of being blocked up. [ 1913 Webster ]

A book printed from engraved wooden blocks instead of movable types. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Mach.) A chain in which the alternate links are broad blocks connected by thin side links pivoted to the ends of the blocks, used with sprocket wheels to transmit power, as in a bicycle. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

adj. 1. closed to traffic. Traffic was blocked by an overturned tractor-trailor
Syn. -- out of use(predicate). [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. at a complete standstill because of opposition of two unrelenting forces or factions.
Syn. -- deadlocked, stalemated. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

3. unusable because of some obstruction. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ Block + head. ] A stupid fellow; a dolt; a person deficient in understanding. [ 1913 Webster ]

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read,
With loads of learned lumber in his head. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Stupid; dull. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. That which characterizes a blockhead; stupidity. Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Block + house: cf. G. blockhaus. ] 1. (Mil.) An edifice or structure of heavy timbers or logs for military defense, having its sides loopholed for musketry, and often an upper story projecting over the lower, or so placed upon it as to have its sides make an angle wit the sides of the lower story, thus enabling the defenders to fire downward, and in all directions; -- formerly much used in America and Germany. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A house of squared logs. [ West. & South. U. S. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The act of obstructing, supporting, shaping, or stamping with a block or blocks. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Blocks used to support (a building, etc.) temporarily. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Arch.) The finishing course of a wall showing above a cornice. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like a block; deficient in understanding; stupid; dull. “Blockish Ajax.” Shak. -- Block"ish*ly, adv. -- Block"ish*ness, n. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Like a block; stupid. [ 1913 Webster ]

. (Railroads) One of the danger signals or safety signals which guide the movement of trains in a block system. The signal is often so coupled with a switch that act of opening or closing the switch operates the signal also. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

. (Railroads) A system by which the track is divided into short sections, as of three or four miles, and trains are so run by the guidance of electric, or combined electric and pneumatic, signals that no train enters a section or block until the preceding train has left it, as in
absolute blocking, or that a train may be allowed to follow another into a block as long as it proceeds with excessive caution, as in
permissive blocking. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

See under Tin. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ From the chemist Blöde. ] (Min.) A hydrous sulphate of magnesium and sodium. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) (a) A shrub or small tree of southern Florida and the West Indies (Pisonia obtusata) with smooth oval leaves and a hard, 10-ribbed fruit. (b) The rubiaceous shrub Chicocca racemosa, of the same region. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. See Bloomery. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ F., fair, light, of uncertain origin; cf. AS. blonden-feax gray-haired, old, prop. blended-haired, as a mixture of white and brown or black. See Blend, v. t. ] Of a fair color; light-colored; as, blond hair; a blond complexion. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. ] 1. A person of very fair complexion, with light hair and light blue eyes. [ Written also blond. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. [ So called from its color. ] A kind of silk lace originally of the color of raw silk, now sometimes dyed; -- called also blond lace. [ 1913 Webster ]

A variety of clay ironstone, in Staffordshire, England, used for making tools. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The state of being blond. G. Eliot. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ } a. [ OF. blanquet whitish, dim. of blanc white. Cf. Blanket. ] Gray; bluish gray. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Our bloncket liveries been all too sad. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. blod, blood, AS. blōd; akin to D. bloed, OHG. bluot, G. blut, Goth. blōþ, Icel. blōð, Sw. & Dan. blod; prob. fr. the same root as E. blow to bloom. See Blow to bloom. ] 1. The fluid which circulates in the principal vascular system of animals, carrying nourishment to all parts of the body, and bringing away waste products to be excreted. See under Arterial. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The blood consists of a liquid, the plasma, containing minute particles, the blood corpuscles. In the invertebrate animals it is usually nearly colorless, and contains only one kind of corpuscles; but in all vertebrates, except Amphioxus, it contains some colorless corpuscles, with many more which are red and give the blood its uniformly red color. See Corpuscle, Plasma. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Relationship by descent from a common ancestor; consanguinity; kinship. [ 1913 Webster ]

To share the blood of Saxon royalty. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

A friend of our own blood. Waller. [ 1913 Webster ]

Half blood (Law), relationship through only one parent. --
Whole blood, relationship through both father and mother. In American Law, blood includes both half blood, and whole blood. Bouvier. Peters. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Descent; lineage; especially, honorable birth; the highest royal lineage. [ 1913 Webster ]

Give us a prince of blood, a son of Priam. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

I am a gentleman of blood and breeding. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Stock Breeding) Descent from parents of recognized breed; excellence or purity of breed. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ In stock breeding half blood is descent showing one half only of pure breed. Blue blood, full blood, or warm blood, is the same as blood. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. The fleshy nature of man. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nor gives it satisfaction to our blood. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. The shedding of blood; the taking of life, murder; manslaughter; destruction. [ 1913 Webster ]

So wills the fierce, avenging sprite,
Till blood for blood atones. Hood. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A bloodthirsty or murderous disposition. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

He was a thing of blood, whose every motion
Was timed with dying cries. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

8. Temper of mind; disposition; state of the passions; -- as if the blood were the seat of emotions. [ 1913 Webster ]

When you perceive his blood inclined to mirth. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Often, in this sense, accompanied with bad, cold, warm, or other qualifying word. Thus, to commit an act in cold blood, is to do it deliberately, and without sudden passion; to do it in bad blood, is to do it in anger. Warm blood denotes a temper inflamed or irritated. To warm or heat the blood is to excite the passions. Qualified by up, excited feeling or passion is signified; as, my blood was up. [ 1913 Webster ]

9. A man of fire or spirit; a fiery spark; a gay, showy man; a rake. [ 1913 Webster ]

Seest thou not . . . how giddily 'a turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five and thirty? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

It was the morning costume of a dandy or blood. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

10. The juice of anything, especially if red. [ 1913 Webster ]

He washed . . . his clothes in the blood of grapes. Gen. xiix. 11. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Blood is often used as an adjective, and as the first part of self-explaining compound words; as, blood-bespotted, blood-bought, blood-curdling, blood-dyed, blood-red, blood-spilling, blood-stained, blood-warm, blood-won. [ 1913 Webster ]

Blood baptism (Eccl. Hist.), the martyrdom of those who had not been baptized. They were considered as baptized in blood, and this was regarded as a full substitute for literal baptism. --
Blood blister, a blister or bleb containing blood or bloody serum, usually caused by an injury. --
Blood brother, brother by blood or birth. --
Blood clam (Zool.), a bivalve mollusk of the genus Arca and allied genera, esp. Argina pexata of the American coast. So named from the color of its flesh. --
Blood corpuscle. See Corpuscle. --
Blood crystal (Physiol.), one of the crystals formed by the separation in a crystalline form of the hæmoglobin of the red blood corpuscles; hæmatocrystallin. All blood does not yield blood crystals. --
Blood heat, heat equal to the temperature of human blood, or about 981/2 ° Fahr. --
Blood horse, a horse whose blood or lineage is derived from the purest and most highly prized origin or stock. --
Blood money. See in the Vocabulary. --
Blood orange, an orange with dark red pulp. --
Blood poisoning (Med.), a morbid state of the blood caused by the introduction of poisonous or infective matters from without, or the absorption or retention of such as are produced in the body itself; toxæmia. --
Blood pudding, a pudding made of blood and other materials. --
Blood relation, one connected by blood or descent. --
Blood spavin. See under Spavin. --
Blood vessel. See in the Vocabulary. --
Blue blood, the blood of noble or aristocratic families, which, according to a Spanish prover , has in it a tinge of blue; -- hence, a member of an old and aristocratic family. --
Flesh and blood. (a) A blood relation, esp. a child. (b) Human nature. --
In blood (Hunting), in a state of perfect health and vigor. Shak. --
To let blood. See under Let. --
Prince of the blood, the son of a sovereign, or the issue of a royal family. The sons, brothers, and uncles of the sovereign are styled princes of the blood royal; and the daughters, sisters, and aunts are princesses of the blood royal. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Blooded; p. pr. & vb. n. Blooding. ] 1. To bleed. [ Obs. ] Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To stain, smear or wet, with blood. [ Archaic ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Reach out their spears afar,
And blood their points. Dryden. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To give (hounds or soldiers) a first taste or sight of blood, as in hunting or war. [ 1913 Webster ]

It was most important too that his troops should be blooded. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To heat the blood of; to exasperate. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The auxiliary forces of the French and English were much blooded one against another. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. Indiscriminate slaughter; the killing of multiple persons.
Syn. -- bloodletting, bloodshed, battue. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. [ fig. ] Substantial losses by many people, as in a mass termination of employment or widespread financial loss; as, the sudden market drop created a bloodbath among overoptimistic investors. [ PJC ]