I. noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a block grant American English (= money given by the central government to state governments in order to pay for services such as the police, roads etc )
▪
Congress approved block grants for education, health, and social services.
a block of flats (= a large building divided into separate flats )
▪
At the time, I lived in a block of flats in St John’s Wood.
a block of ice
▪
The fish were packed in blocks of ice, ready for transportation.
a block of wood
▪
I used a block of wood to knock the pole into the ground.
a group booking/block booking (= a booking for a large number of seats, rooms etc )
▪
There's a 20% discount for group bookings.
a road is blocked
▪
The main road was blocked for an hour while police cleared the accident.
apartment block
block a pipe
▪
It is likely that fat or grease is blocking the waste pipe.
block an entrance
▪
A large stone blocked the entrance to the tomb.
block and tackle
block capitals
▪
Complete the form in block capitals.
block letters
block party
block sb’s view
▪
A pillar blocked my view of the stage.
blocked drain
▪
The flood was caused by a blocked drain .
blocked (= so that you cannot breathe easily )
▪
My nose is really blocked and I can't smell anything.
building block
▪
Amino acids are the building blocks of protein.
cinder block
new kid on the block informal (= the newest person in a job, school etc )
▪
It’s not always easy being the new kid on the block.
starting blocks
stumbling block
▪
The main stumbling block to starting new research is that we lack qualified people.
tenement building/house/block
tower block
writer's block
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
concrete
▪
The most popular materials for raised beds are bricks and concrete walling blocks .
▪
There was another little room, the Quiet Room, plain concrete block walls without chairs or windows.
▪
Most likely to suffer are concrete block houses built in the Twenties and Thirties and earlier buildings where shuttered concrete was employed.
▪
This building also will be made of structural steel and concrete blocks .
▪
Meanwhile, powerful United States Army helicopters continued dropping massive concrete blocks to hinder the lava flow.
▪
Rusted metal, bits of concrete and cinder block , patches of burnt, weedy turf.
▪
The concrete block shell was in place by early 1992 ready for the 25-week facing brickwork stage to begin.
▪
Since then, her head has felt like a concrete block .
main
▪
The gabled main block is stone-built.
▪
The money she received went towards the building of the main hospital block in Shantinagar.
▪
Today, the main blocks of the complex remain, externally altered little.
▪
The joint venture is also planning a hotel and an office building next to the main apartment block .
▪
Access to the dining room in the north-east corner of the main block was then made via a short flight of stairs.
▪
He speculated that Rhyl platform clearances would be the main stumbling block .
▪
Old classrooms in the main block were refurbished and brought back into use for Sociology and Philosophy.
▪
The main block of the mill is practically empty but the older part now houses grain storage bins.
major
▪
The issue of taxation was the major block in reaching agreement.
▪
Economic reform, or rather the lack of it, is proving the other major stumbling block .
▪
This is the major stumbling block to experimental realisation of the Lorenz system in lasers.
mental
▪
Most of the blocks mentioned here are at the physical level, but the emotional and mental blocks are equally important.
▪
Spring focus: 2B Chuck Knoblauch claims he received help during the offseason with his mental block on routine throws.
▪
It is difficult to escape the conclusion that he has a mental and emotional block about competing with his compatriots.
▪
Beware of becoming so fixated on this one position that you acquire a mental block against progressing further.
▪
She developed a complete mental block against her pregnancy, and concealed it until four days before she went into labour.
▪
Their mocking faces caused a mental block - or a block somewhere else.
stumbling
▪
The possible stumbling blocks would be financial and attitudinal barriers to these learners.
▪
In the autumn of 1987, Conran ran into a potentially more serious stumbling block to his plans.
▪
It is still foolishness and a stumbling block .
▪
Defence cuts could also be a stumbling block .
▪
Combining motherhood and her career proved no stumbling block for the indomitable Marian.
▪
Do you feel that the language problem is a fundamental stumbling block for art historians?
▪
Other stumbling blocks include differences in the regulations of individual stock exchanges on voting rights of shares in take-over targets.
▪
Richard Moon retired from the Board in 1891, removing the main stumbling block to progress in design of coaching stock.
wooden
▪
In it, there are three wooden blocks labelled A, B and C, and a table.
▪
Two, which hold wooden blocks , are on rolling coasters, and they are permanently available.
▪
Lay out the small, smooth wooden blocks or small boxes where the living compartments for the ants are to be.
▪
Tripped on the wooden blocks painted to look like ice, the doll careening away from her down between the blocks.
▪
Teacher: Mark, go and get the heaviest wooden block that you can find.
▪
Straight in at Number 12, it consists of a tower of wooden blocks .
▪
This one had electric lights on either side of the mirror and two on a wooden block along the top.
▪
They put the catapult into position and placed wooden blocks in front of the wheels to stop it rolling into the sea.
■ NOUN
apartment
▪
The joint venture is also planning a hotel and an office building next to the main apartment block .
▪
This time she took him to a room in a large apartment block set near factories and oil-storage tanks.
▪
To Katherine, a New Yorker, used to apartment blocks and intimate brownstones, it was trebly impressive.
▪
On the outskirts of Tabor there were long rows of multi-storey apartment blocks of an extraordinary ugliness; many flats looked empty.
▪
He must go now, to the apartment block , and make his calls on the tenants.
▪
A quiet street and the beard stood in the shade of an apartment block doorway.
▪
Damian got out, his arm around Domino, and they ran into an apartment block .
▪
Dozens of people were seen leaping from windows in the apartment blocks .
building
▪
He stresses that formal planning can only be one of the many building blocks which determine corporate strategy.
▪
Analogue design remains important because it accommodates and defines the basic building blocks of electronics.
▪
What modules of data were already available as building blocks for computer programs without a major investment in new software? 2.
▪
The word is made up of three parts, stuck together like building blocks .
▪
They formed gases and ultimately amino acids, the so-called building blocks of life.
▪
The building blocks of matter are the atoms which were originally thought to be indivisible.
cinder
▪
They passed a Baptist church set on cinder blocks .
▪
The room is maybe six feet square, with cinder block walls.
▪
Three small houses, made of painted cinder block and aluminum, faced the hotel from across the street.
▪
His bookshelves were plywood and cinder blocks .
▪
If the foundation is made of cinder blocks , they need to be set in a bed of mortar on the concrete.
▪
In Colonia Anapra, homes are made from plywood sheets, wooden pallets, unpainted cinder blocks and cardboard.
exemption
▪
The block exemptions are subject to review, since they have expiry dates written in, but no substantial change is imminent.
▪
Similarly, franchise agreements are granted block exemption under Regulation 4087/88.
▪
But this point is already clearly recognized in the legal framework through such elements as the block exemptions .
grant
▪
Arts and Sports Councils established under Acts of Parliament and funded by block grant offer a further instance.
▪
Thus by the sixth year about half of all the block grant money would be distributed on a discretionary basis.
▪
More fundamentally, in the early 1980s a new system of local-government support was introduced - the block grant .
▪
One aspect of the block grant other than program decisions and performance audits would require HUD-local interaction.
▪
Transport does not appear as a separate item, but as part of the overall block grant to regional authorities.
▪
Such geographic constraints were initially absent from the block grant program.
▪
The meeting was complete with a slide show prepared by the National League of Cities that explained the block grant program.
▪
Under a block grant approach, each state would receive a lump sum to be divided any way the state chose.
letter
▪
The surname should be written or typed in block letters followed by the title of the guest, and then the initials.
▪
The files contained a single document, his lob application, filled out in block letters and unsigned.
▪
The lines, mainly in block letters , wander and slant across the page.
▪
This is what it says, high above a doorway, in big block letters , at Pasadena's Clearwater Seafood.
office
▪
The fireball destroyed a prefabricated office building before setting a four-storey office block ablaze.
▪
The first program for the office block was enormously different from its eventual design.
▪
A modern multi-storey office block is a very simple design.
▪
They have permission to turn it into a pub, a small office block or a complete three storey office.
▪
The next morning Tony parked his car and walked slowly towards the newly completed office block .
▪
The arched gateway disappeared and an office block was erected alongside the entrance.
▪
Read in studio Fire has badly damaged an office block in Gloucester.
▪
Jagged blue lightning stabbed through one of the ragged gaps and found the only thing in the office block that was moving.
road
▪
More than 12 vans and cars were stopped during the 35 minutes the road block was in position.
▪
Take off he does, avoiding road blocks .
▪
Peacekeeping troops set up road blocks and conducted house-to-house searches.
▪
Just as we were crossing Chelsea Bridge we were stopped by the police at a road block .
▪
These involved road blocks , interrupting rail services and police controlling the route to the airport.
▪
Stirred up by this incident, nationalists took to the streets in several parts of Yerevan, setting up road blocks .
▪
Near Perth, they burst through a police road block , put in place for another enquiry.
▪
The New Forest had become virtually a fortress of barbed wire and road blocks .
tower
▪
Competition entrants are asked to look at how to transform the tower block typology into a new type of community.
▪
A spokesman for the Housing Department would only say that the tower blocks had seemed a good idea at the time.
▪
And even more amazing that he can still squeeze through chimneys and central heating air vents in tower blocks .
▪
Only from the windows of a derelict tower block squatted by women was there any deliberately hostile response.
▪
And new cars shed their value faster than a Steinway falls from the top of a tower block .
▪
The tower block , the demolition, and Hugh bad now and dying in his bed.
▪
Glasgow certainly needs a modern landmark - something to deflect the eye from the miserable tower blocks of the 1960s.
▪
Maybe they had lived in one of his tower blocks .
vote
▪
It is rather like a Labour Party conference, without the block vote .
▪
Administrative means - like the block vote-have been used to solve political problems.
▪
That can now change - indeed, if the block vote goes, it will have to change.
▪
In the end the pro-democracy motion was defeated-crushed under the boot of the union block vote .
▪
The rumbling row with the unions over ending the block vote is a classic example of its suicidal tendencies.
▪
Although that would reduce the union block vote more drastically than other options, it would also give both sides a veto.
▪
A composite motion demanding the straight forward abolition of the block vote was defeated on a show of hands.
▪
Millions of trade unionists could not simply be represented by the casting of a block vote once a year.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
I'll knock your head/block off
be a chip off the old block
▪
"That daughter of yours has a great sense of humour." "Yes, I like to think she's a chip off the old block!"
building blocks
mental block
▪
Beware of becoming so fixated on this one position that you acquire a mental block against progressing further.
▪
Most of the blocks mentioned here are at the physical level, but the emotional and mental blocks are equally important.
▪
She developed a complete mental block against her pregnancy, and concealed it until four days before she went into labour.
▪
Spring focus: 2B Chuck Knoblauch claims he received help during the offseason with his mental block on routine throws.
▪
Their mocking faces caused a mental block - or a block somewhere else.
▪
With the uh, mental block.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
an apartment block
▪
Concrete blocks were used by most builders in the 1960s when constructing office buildings.
▪
His studios are on the tenth floor of an office block overlooking the river.
▪
It's three blocks to the store from here.
▪
Many of the families on our block are Hispanic-Americans.
▪
She lived three blocks away from me when we were kids.
▪
The fish were lying on huge blocks of ice to keep them cold.
▪
The house at Number 14 was replaced by a block of flats.
▪
The ice was cut into blocks and stored in a special shed.
▪
There's another new office block going up behind the station.
▪
To the east is a landscape of concrete tower blocks.
▪
We went for a walk around the block .
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
Beware of becoming so fixated on this one position that you acquire a mental block against progressing further.
▪
But with a deli on every other block purveying all sorts of ethnic breads, l never baked a single loaf.
▪
During the first Cold War years, the capitalist block was indeed seeking the downfall of the war-exhausted Soviet Union.
▪
Moulded, splinter-proof cutting blocks, called Barboards, are also available.
▪
One stumbling block can be the kind of computer you own.
▪
Only from the windows of a derelict tower block squatted by women was there any deliberately hostile response.
▪
The Cannon halted rush-hour traffic as it rattled the windows of every car and skyscraper for blocks around.
II. verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
action
▪
Each group is used for a different purpose, to inactivate bacteria or block the action of viruses, for example.
▪
Corin Redgrave has blocked out the key action vividly, indicating the threatening turmoil of war and revolt.
▪
Self-pity tends to block taking action that will be truly effective in reversing the downward spirals of primary and family diseases.
▪
He has hinted that he will block action on it indefinitely.
▪
Tried and trusted for generations, Drapolene's special formula won't block the action of disposable nappies.
bill
▪
Sadly, however, a few Opposition Members sought to block the Bill as it neared the end of its passage through Parliament.
▪
The vote came after majority Nationalist Party officials said today the party would use parliamentary procedures to block implementation of the bills .
▪
Mrs Cresson has already several times hinted that parliament may be dissolved if the conservative opposition tries to block government bills .
▪
Forty senators could block the bill because Senate rules require 60 votes to take up a conference committee report.
▪
The majority Nationalists introduced an alternative tax bill Tuesday to block the opposition bill.
▪
Dole often seemed frustrated and unsure of himself as Democrats blocked many of the bills he tried to move through Congress.
▪
And they say they don't believe Wellstone has the votes to sustain a filibuster to block the bill .
▪
But the blocked spending bills are pawns in a larger debate over the parties' competing seven-year balanced-budget plans.
entrance
▪
The travellers had already been thwarted by Gloucestershire police, who blocked entrances to a site in the Forest of Dean.
▪
The rubble had temporarily blocked the entrance to the cavern below the Horseshoe Falls.
▪
They have defied bailiffs by blocking the entrance to the building.
▪
Five were arrested on a charge of trying to block an entrance to the Treasury Building.
▪
The stone that blocked the entrance to the tomb was placed there for a purpose.
▪
In London, two skips and six barrels full of toxic waste blocked the front entrance to the environment building.
▪
They blocked the entrances in protest at what they claim is the unnecessary culling of badgers organised from the base.
▪
We arrived at one which blocked one of the entrances to Debenham.
escape
▪
He realized his mistake too late and when he turned back to the entrance Sabrina was already there, blocking his escape .
▪
Harsh fortresses of prickly pears and shard grass and dead branches block off all escape .
▪
Mr Letts tried to block their escape route and was mown down.
▪
They are now both in front of her on the road, blocking any escape .
▪
Swarms of wolf riders are often deployed ahead of the army's line of march to scout and block any route of escape .
▪
Behind them a huge force of Orcs moved to block their escape .
exit
▪
Two of them blocked her exit from the car park while the third smashed the car window to grab her handbag.
▪
People loaded with shopping shoved her aside: she was blocking the exit of a big supermarket.
▪
We had been coming on to the main road at about five miles an hour when three men had blocked our exit .
▪
It blocked the exit to the driveway.
▪
She quickly slipped ahead of the trolley pushers as one of them blocked the exit , manoeuvring his way through.
flow
▪
It can also cause cold spots along the bottom of the radiator, without completely blocking the flow .
▪
Strokes occur when blood vessels become clogged, blocking the flow of oxygen to an organ such as the brain.
▪
There is a filter on the inlet side of the fuel pump which may be partially blocked and obstructing fuel flow .
▪
Such an obstruction blocks the flow of bile from the gallbladder into the small intestine.
▪
The other is how to define their offence without blocking the flow of information from companies to investors.
▪
The Wall is designed to block the flow of information legitimately acquired by one department, to other departments.
light
▪
Archie suddenly loomed over me, his bloated Zeppelin figure blocking out what little light there was.
▪
You need something to block the light .
▪
So, again, suppose A is blocking up B's light .
▪
The sun floods in, young plants shoot upwards and the struggle starts anew as the winners block light from their inferiors.
▪
The house is kept in almost total darkness with a special membrane to block out ultra-violet light covering all the windows.
▪
The belly continued to grow, blocking out the light .
passage
▪
But senators opposed to the bases vowed to block its passage , calling it illegal.
▪
A high Grand Coulee Dam, however, would block their passage for ever.
▪
But this interruption also blocks the passage of ideas by shifting emphasis away from the signified.
▪
Mike Lieberman was trying to block its passage .
▪
A crowd had gathered, blocking the passage .
▪
Many of his sperm do not even try to fertilize her eggs but instead either attack other sperm or block their passage .
▪
This extreme version of the distrust of government has often been manipulated by the corporate sector to block passage of government regulation.
path
▪
He then walked out of the shop, despite the efforts of staff to block his path .
▪
Investigators said this included having some one fall in front of the candidate to block his path .
▪
The person or creature is blocking your path , so walk up and speak with it.
▪
When such costs are taken seriously, the resulting fear effectively blocks the path to minimizing and blaming.
▪
There are few trees, and fewer houses, to block its path .
▪
I could see the muzzle flashes in the tree line fifty yards away, which blocked our take-off path .
▪
She was moving slowly along the edge of the pavement when a car door swung open in front of her, blocking her path .
▪
Edwards had a dream in which many of his friends and relatives were blocking the path down the triple-jump runway.
plan
▪
Standing Room Only researchers can find no rules or regulations to block Newbon's revolutionary plan .
▪
But several problems, including a marked lack of support from other countries, are blocking the plan .
▪
South Pasadena residents repeatedly blocked plans to run the freeway through their city.
▪
I have had friends whose girlfriends' families actively blocked their marriage plans .
▪
His widow has blocked all plans to complete the story.
road
▪
So ferocious was the wind that the trees blew down and blocked the roads and railways.
▪
The accident, which left wreckage spread over a wide area, blocked the road causing severe traffic disruption.
▪
Wives of rocket forces troops in Siberia blocked the road to the missile silos in 1998 to protest unpaid wages.
▪
Suddenly, cars swerved to block the road , and dozens of security officers fanned out through the crowd.
▪
She heard the sound of another car behind her, and saw that she was blocking the narrow road .
▪
Even after the first attacks numerous destroyed, burning vehicles would have blocked the road .
▪
We reached to within 200m of the Centre until we were faced with lines of riot police blocking the roads .
▪
The crash at High Craigton, around 8am, blocked the road for several hours.
shot
▪
A police car emerged from the other alleyway and screeched to a halt ten yards in front of Whitlock, blocking his shot .
▪
He can make shots , he can block shots....
▪
His one chance came just before half-time when a defender's shins blocked his shot .
▪
He can go through a slump and still block shots .
▪
Six minutes from the end Murdoch again came to the visitors' rescue when he dived to block a shot from Hateley.
▪
McCoy returned a few minutes later and quickly hit two mid-range jumpers and blocked two Bryant Boston shots in succession.
▪
Five minutes later Hislop blocked a shot from Andy Cole, and Sheringham wafted the rebound over the bar.
▪
And any time the Cardinal ventured into the lane, McCoy was there to block or alter shots .
street
▪
Maintaining a bella figura at all costs can cause problems greater than a partially blocked street .
▪
There will also be close, searched boats, blocked streets and all the other inconveniences of a major political convention.
▪
They had blocked the street off, rather as if an armed siege was in progress.
▪
In the Santa Cruz neighborhood, witnesses said a building several stories high collapsed, blocking the street .
▪
Barricades blocked the main streets and were erected in many neighbourhoods.
▪
A large delivery van was almost blocking the narrow street , its high sides nearly shutting off the daylight from her windows.
▪
The buildings block out the street lighting.
view
▪
They block the rear view of the road and make our quest to recover the tabs all the more difficult.
▪
For a few seconds the squirrel was behind a few pine twigs that were blocking its view towards me.
▪
Last night the piano had blocked his view , but he knew roughly where to look.
▪
Perches should be placed so that the birds can see over a wide section without anything blocking their view .
▪
Her main fun was watching television, and she threw things at people who blocked her view .
▪
The soldiers so blocked spectators' view that the onlookers cheered, thinking the president was in the carriage.
▪
The huge building across the street blocked my view of the horizon.
▪
Yoyo stood before both of them, blocking their view of the soldiers in helicopters landing amid silenced gun reports and explosions.
way
▪
The chaprassi spotted the newcomer and stood up, blocking the way to the offices within.
▪
A Secret Service agent blocked his way .
▪
The first trolley was still stuck, its owner now flustered, aware that he was blocking everyone else's way .
▪
Two uprooted palm trees blocked their way at the foot of the stairs.
▪
Moss wiped their faces as they fought the live-oak branches that blocked their way .
▪
Two black guys block our way .
▪
The desire to be right is a stumbling block in a way .
■ VERB
threaten
▪
Secretions which block or threaten to block his airway have to be removed by suction.
▪
Republicans had threatened to block consideration of the Castle-Tanner substitute, authored primarily by Rep.
▪
Some local politicians, led by Mr Antonovich, are threatening to block the necessary implementing regulations.
▪
Yesterday the border farmers threatened to block the council scheme unless their own scheme was sanctioned.
try
▪
Mr Letts tried to block their escape route and was mown down.
▪
Mike Lieberman was trying to block its passage.
▪
Tom was one of several demonstrators who tried to block round a horsebox at the end of the meeting.
▪
We are going to try to block them in a variety of ways and keep them guessing.
▪
Razdolnoye's residents tried to block the Trans-Siberian railway line, and demonstrators filed through Vladivostok.
▪
The Boyle goons tried to block the door or stuff cards into their hands.
▪
Carla would curl up on his lap and hold her hands over her ears desperately trying to block out their arguing.
▪
Daily protests involving hundreds of arrests were made as blacks tried to block the trucks.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
be a chip off the old block
▪
"That daughter of yours has a great sense of humour." "Yes, I like to think she's a chip off the old block!"
building blocks
mental block
▪
Beware of becoming so fixated on this one position that you acquire a mental block against progressing further.
▪
Most of the blocks mentioned here are at the physical level, but the emotional and mental blocks are equally important.
▪
She developed a complete mental block against her pregnancy, and concealed it until four days before she went into labour.
▪
Spring focus: 2B Chuck Knoblauch claims he received help during the offseason with his mental block on routine throws.
▪
Their mocking faces caused a mental block - or a block somewhere else.
▪
With the uh, mental block.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪
a blocked currency
▪
A big truck had turned over on its side, and it was blocking the road.
▪
Britain has threatened to block new EU legislation on human rights.
▪
Hundreds of protesters blocked the entrance to the President's palace.
▪
The accident has blocked two lanes of traffic on the freeway.
▪
The city council blocked the idea for a new shopping mall.
▪
The deal was blocked by the chairman, who was unwilling to commit so much company money to a risky investment.
▪
The sink is blocked again.
▪
The view was blocked by two ugly high-rise apartment buildings.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪
But you may find the road blocked.
▪
Drugs that block acetylcholine interfere with memory.
▪
Having blocked two attacking techniques, the defender counters with a double punch to his opponent's face.
▪
Some small villages in the northern Andes were left isolated as roads were blocked by slides.
▪
Which of these have blocked your growth?