Chapter Blistery to Blood of B by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

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.

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.] [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.

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

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

Blockade
(Block*ade") 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.

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.

2. An obstruction to passage.

To raise a blockade. See under Raise.

Blockade
(Block*ade"), 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.

2. Hence, to shut in so as to prevent egress.

Till storm and driving ice blockade him there.
Wordsworth.