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Block   /blɑk/   Listen
Block

noun
1.
A solid piece of something (usually having flat rectangular sides).
2.
A rectangular area in a city surrounded by streets and usually containing several buildings.  Synonym: city block.
3.
A three-dimensional shape with six square or rectangular sides.  Synonym: cube.
4.
A number or quantity of related things dealt with as a unit.  "He held a large block of the company's stock"
5.
Housing in a large building that is divided into separate units.
6.
(computer science) a sector or group of sectors that function as the smallest data unit permitted.
7.
An inability to remember or think of something you normally can do; often caused by emotional tension.  Synonym: mental block.
8.
A simple machine consisting of a wheel with a groove in which a rope can run to change the direction or point of application of a force applied to the rope.  Synonyms: pulley, pulley-block, pulley block.
9.
A metal casting containing the cylinders and cooling ducts of an engine.  Synonyms: cylinder block, engine block.
10.
An obstruction in a pipe or tube.  Synonyms: blockage, closure, occlusion, stop, stoppage.
11.
A platform from which an auctioneer sells.  Synonym: auction block.
12.
The act of obstructing or deflecting someone's movements.  Synonym: blocking.



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"Block" Quotes from Famous Books



... remedy was to invent some method, by which a block of iron should be lifted to a sufficient height above the object on which it was desired to strike a blow, and let the block fall down upon the work,—guiding it in its descent by such simple means as should give the required precision in ...
— Industrial Biography - Iron Workers and Tool Makers • Samuel Smiles

... but who shall describe the scene of desolation! The room was entirely stripped; there was nothing left, save the bare whitewashed walls, and the red tiled flooring. The room was darkened; and seated on an old block of wood, which had been pulled out of the orchard, since the bailiff had left, was John Conyers. The fire was out, but his feet were still among the ashes. His head was buried in his hands, and bowed down nearly to his knees. The eldest girl, a fine sensible child of about thirteen, was ...
— Vivian Grey • The Earl of Beaconsfield

... foul words and abuse, and roared out from the top of the horse-block, was addressed to the crowd that ...
— The Carbonels • Charlotte M. Yonge

... than any other to me was the particular spot on the mountain side where a kind of throne existed carved out of a huge block of rock, and where a battle of the Incas against their enemies could be reconstructed. Mounds of ammunition, consisting of round stones as big as a lawn-tennis ball, had been accumulated above and near the throne. Just below that high spot I found scattered upon the mountain side ...
— Across Unknown South America • Arnold Henry Savage Landor

... Hal acknowledged the introduction. Elias M. Pierce, receding a yard or so into perspective, revealed himself as a spare, middle-aged man who looked as if he had been hewn out of a block, square, and glued into a permanent black suit. Under his palely sardonic eye Hal felt that he was being appraised, and in none ...
— The Clarion • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... to be calm. Necessity forces me to speak; for, as you see, I stand between this revelation and the block—I am Bartolo Contini!" ...
— The Headsman - The Abbaye des Vignerons • James Fenimore Cooper

... Gaffarellus, in his book of Unheard-of Curiosities; namely of a tree found in Holland, which being cleft, had in the several slivers, the figures of a chalice, a priest's albe, his stole, and several other pontifical vestments: Of this sort was the elm growing at Middle-Aston in Oxfordshire, a block of which wood being cleft, there came out a piece so exactly resembling a shoulder of veal, that it was worthy to be reckon'd among the ...
— Sylva, Vol. 1 (of 2) - Or A Discourse of Forest Trees • John Evelyn

... various reasons—partly because, in her frisking gyrations, Lass was forever tangling the new chain around Dick's thin ankles; partly because he stopped, every block or so, to pat her or to give her further lessons in the art of shaking hands. Also there were admiring boy-acquaintances along the way, to whom the wonderful ...
— Bruce • Albert Payson Terhune

... left the mountain chain and detain them in this torrid wilderness, nature might do even more than the Numidian arms to secure a victory; meanwhile measures might be taken to close the passage to the river, and to bring up fresh forces from the east to block the desired route while the ambushed army was harassed by attacks from the flank ...
— A History of Rome, Vol 1 - During the late Republic and early Principate • A H.J. Greenidge

... thing, I couldn't see what it was. Then all of us put on our best dresses. Mother looked as glad and sweet as any girl, when she sat to rest a little while. I didn't dare climb the catalpa in my white dress, so I watched from the horse block, and when I saw the grays come over the top of the hill, I ran to tell. As mother went to the gate, she told May and me to walk behind, to stay back until we were spoken to, and then to keep our heads level, and remember our manners. I don't know where Leon went. He said he lost all interest ...
— Laddie • Gene Stratton Porter

... cried the old gentleman, fiercely. "You always were a proud, stubborn fellow. And so this is your son, is it?" he continued, peering searchingly in the boy's face. "Ah! chip of the old block; stubborn one too, I can see. Shake hands, sir. Now then, what are ...
— Syd Belton - The Boy who would not go to Sea • George Manville Fenn

... angle of the exterior walls of the cathedral, on a rude stone, is a reddish looking block, which has all the appearance of a veiled priest, covered with a large mantle, which conceals his hands and face. The height of the figure is about eight feet as it sits; the feet, huge unformed masses, covered with what seems drapery, are supported on a square pedestal, which is again sustained ...
— Barn and the Pyrenees - A Legendary Tour to the Country of Henri Quatre • Louisa Stuart Costello

... Wilson could not go ahead. The situation with Carlotta had become tense, irritating. He felt that she stood ready to block any move he made. He would not go back, and ...
— K • Mary Roberts Rinehart

... top again," Hawtry said, climbing back to them. "Bring down one of those spars we brought down, a block, a long rope, and a short one to serve as a guy. Get half-a-dozen more hands. You'd better fix a rope at the top firmly, and use it to steady you as you return. There's a ship ashore just underneath us, and I ...
— Jack Archer • G. A. Henty

... there may be no danger from evilly-disposed visitors during the mother's absence. The Bee must have serious reasons for thus hurrying on the closing of the cell. What would happen if, after laying her egg, she left the house open and went to the cement-pit to fetch the wherewithal to block the door? Some thief might drop in and substitute her own egg for the Mason-bee's. We shall see that our suspicions are not uncalled-for. One thing is certain, that the Mason never lays without having in her ...
— The Mason-bees • J. Henri Fabre

... in gold. There is not another like it in the country, perhaps in the world. The next time his majesty, the Tsar, requests my presence, I shall inform him that the violin is here in his fortress, stolen by a slovenly, insolent official, who doesn't know a violin from a block of wood, or a note from a pin head." His eyes drooped again. The Cossack examined ...
— The Black Cross • Olive M. Briggs

... more inglorious for the English than their operations by sea in the course of this summer. The king had ordered the admirals to use all possible despatch in equipping the fleets, that they might block up the enemy in their own ports and protect the commerce, which had suffered severely from the French privateers. They were however so dilatory in their proceedings, that the squadrons of the enemy sailed from their harbours before the English ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... young Englishman, was leaning against a pillar of the veranda in an attitude which displayed his very stylish dress to the best possible advantage. He appeared mildly conscious that he had performed a solemn duty in making a perambulating tailor's block of himself, and ready to receive any amount of feminine admiration without resistance. He came forward half a step ...
— A Noble Woman • Ann S. Stephens

... a small square block cut against the dazzling brightness and slowly grew into a lonely homestead. After some consideration, George headed for it, and toward noon reached a little, birch-log dwelling, with a sod stable beside it. Both had an uncared-for appearance, which suggested their owner's poverty. As George ...
— Ranching for Sylvia • Harold Bindloss

... and shy, and Rachael was a woman of uncommon strength of character and had been brought up by a woman of austere virtue. These causes held them apart for a time, but one might as well have attempted to block two comets rushing at each other in the same orbit. The magnetism of the Inevitable embraced them and knit their inner selves together, even while they sat decorously apart. Rachael had taken off her hat at once, and even after it grew dark in their arbour, Hamilton ...
— The Conqueror • Gertrude Franklin Atherton

... "Those boys are too lucky! If they weren't they never would have gotten away with the stunt they pulled to-night. Imagine riding right into our hands and getting away from us! Every time I think of it I feel like kicking myself around the block." ...
— The Boy Ranchers on Roaring River - or Diamond X and the Chinese Smugglers • Willard F. Baker

... builders' foundation drawing, with the addition of several horizontal and radial tubes introduced to give passage for the various pipes which must go to the middle of the foundation. Entering through the sides of the masonry they do not block the passage, which must be as free as possible when any work is to be done on the step-bearing, or lower guide-bearing. Entering the passage in the foundation, a large screw is seen passing up through a circular block of cast iron with a 3/4-inch pipe passing through ...
— Steam Turbines - A Book of Instruction for the Adjustment and Operation of - the Principal Types of this Class of Prime Movers • Hubert E. Collins

... I would not vex you! But if there were gold in that dungeon—broad bars of gold, or shining silver, or a prize that would make you rich, would you ask me the how and the where? Would that clumsy block, and those slight bars, and that dull jailer, be an obstacle that would keep you back? Would you need a poor girl like me to tell you that the blocks might be pierced—that the bars might be broken—that the jailer might be ...
— Guy Rivers: A Tale of Georgia • William Gilmore Simms

... a council of war was held, and it was decided to block up the entrance fronting the bay with large rocks, leaving only two loopholes open, for watching and for ...
— The Rover Boys on Land and Sea - The Crusoes of Seven Islands • Arthur M. Winfield

... departure, performing them in a funereal spirit, whimpering about the vacant rooms with a grief that was trivial compared with that of Doom itself, who waited for the dawn as if it were to bring him to the block, or of Olivia, whose pillow was wet with unavailing tears. It was their last night in Doom. At daybreak Mungo was to convey them to the harbour, where they should embark upon the vessel that was to bear them ...
— Doom Castle • Neil Munro

... concurring with that of Lord Palmerston, Mr. W. E. Forster, and many men of ability. The Suez route may save a few days, but the risk is terrible. In some parts of the Canal only one ship can pass at a time, and a sunken barge, a little dynamite, or even a severe sandstorm may block the Canal for days. An enemy could easily bribe the owners of a few petty craft to sink their vessels, and thus completely to block up troopships in the Canal. Even without such designs our troopships are frequently delayed in passing through owing ...
— General Gordon - A Christian Hero • Seton Churchill

... and Smithfield, over the cinders of Latimer, Ridley, and John Rogers; which, after elaborate argument, upheld the fatal tyranny of ship-money against the patriotic resistance of Hampden; which, in defiance of justice and humanity, sent Sydney and Russell to the block; which persistently enforced the laws of Conformity that our Puritan Fathers persistently refused to obey; and which afterwards, with Jeffries on the bench, crimsoned the pages of English history with massacre and murder—even with the blood of ...
— The American Union Speaker • John D. Philbrick

... lived for twelve years at Thirty-eight Charlotte Street; he then moved to Number Fifty in the next block, which is a somewhat larger house. It was here that Mazzini used to come. The house had been made over somewhat, and is now used as an office by the Registrar of Vital Statistics. This is the place where Dante Gabriel and a young man named Holman Hunt had a studio, and where ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 2 of 14 - Little Journeys To the Homes of Famous Women • Elbert Hubbard

... you shall have some," Mrs. Anderson said, and Eddy accepted with alacrity the golden block of ...
— The Debtor - A Novel • Mary E. Wilkins Freeman

... Another woman's child! And for the sake of it I am to suffer. Why must that child block the way where I want to ...
— Plays by August Strindberg, Second series • August Strindberg

... they were, and shone where the low wave gleamed over them. I had wondered at the profusion of marbles in the Italian churches, but I had not thought to find them wild on a lonely Sicilian beach. Once or twice already I had seen a block rosy in the torrent-beds, and it had seemed a rare sight; but here the whole shore was piled and inlaid with ...
— Heart of Man • George Edward Woodberry

... brick building down the next block," pointed Billy, his face white with excitement, his eyes burning like ...
— The City of Fire • Grace Livingston Hill

... a panic, and he rose also, still keeping her hand. His face looked like a block of ...
— The Way of an Eagle • Ethel M. Dell

... putting in a new set of timbers, and his task was nearly finished, while beside him waited a drill man and a swamper with the cumbersome, spiderlike mechanism ready to set. The carpenter gave a few more blows to a key block, and methodically flung his hammer into his box and hurried back out through the tunnel toward the cage, intent on resuming ...
— The Plunderer • Roy Norton

... book or a block of wood by the side of an empty pan in the sunlight, so that the end of the shadow falls on the bottom of the pan. Mark the place where the shadow terminates and fill the pan with water. Account for ...
— Physiology and Hygiene for Secondary Schools • Francis M. Walters, A.M.

... school in the neighborhood had just let out, and they were detained by the crowd. Mr. Wakefield Smith stumbled across the street and down a side thoroughfare that was very dark. The officer and our hero went after him, but at the end of the second block he was no longer to ...
— The Young Oarsmen of Lakeview • Ralph Bonehill

... obedience to laws which the Torah had laid down; it was to be a long resistance against desirable things that she yearned for but which she dared not have. She learned at this moment that she could be her own chief stumbling-block, and that love, the most precious illumination in every life, might be a destruction and a consuming fire. She looked at this man, who lounged beside her, with a new sensation. He was winsome, and therefore the more perilous. That smooth ...
— The City of Delight - A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem • Elizabeth Miller

... sugar, the juice and shaved peel of a lemon, a few slices of cucumbers, one wine glass of Curacao, one quart of apollinaris and one quart of champagne. Pour over a block of ice in a ...
— Joe Tilden's Recipes for Epicures • Joe Tilden

... down upon them, was too quick, too clever; Dennison's attempt to block him off was only a glancing one that staggered him for the fraction of an instant; and the ball had no sooner struck in Collingwood's arms than Lawrence launched himself and hurled ...
— The Jester of St. Timothy's • Arthur Stanwood Pier

... construct, or in the painter's mind when he chooses the subject and details of his picture, or in the sculptor's mind when he arranges his group of statuary, or in the musician's mind when he conjures up his opera or oratorio. Balzac's plan was one of numbers or logic merely. The block of his Comedy was composed on the dictionary principle of leaving nothing out which could be put in; and his genius, great as it was, wrestled achingly and in vain with a task from which selection ...
— Balzac • Frederick Lawton

... raking cornices are composed of two stones only, each fifty-four feet in length by eight in breadth, though no more than eighteen inches in thickness. They were taken from the quarries of Meudon, and formed but one single block, which was sawed into two. The other two avant-corps are ornamented by six pilasters, and two columns of the same order, and disposed in the same manner. On the top, in lieu of a ridged roof, is a terrace, bordered by a stone balustrade, the pedestals of which are ...
— Paris As It Was and As It Is • Francis W. Blagdon

... because so many little things keep cropping up. Now, remember, a quarter is quite enough to give any man for moving a trunk. And there's no earthly sense in your taking a cab, Margaret—the street-car will bring you within a block of our door. These little trifles count, dear. And don't let Celestine pack your things, because she's abominably careless. Let Marie do it—and don't tip her. Give her an old hat. And if I were you, I would certainly consult a lawyer about the legality ...
— The Eagle's Shadow • James Branch Cabell

... Brotherhood constitutes MUBARAK's potentially most significant political opposition; MUBARAK tolerated limited political activity by the Brotherhood for his first two terms, but has moved more aggressively in the past year to block its influence; trade unions and professional associations are ...
— The 1996 CIA Factbook • United States. Central Intelligence Agency.

... would be a back number in these days," Tubby sighed, "because you remember his strongest card was to divide the enemy, and then smash one army and then the other. They'd know all about his game in time to block it. The romance of war ...
— The Boy Scouts on Belgian Battlefields • Lieut. Howard Payson

... led a busy life. He was one of those active, intelligent, inquiring spirits which cannot rest. To acquire information was with him not a duty, but a pleasure. Before he had been many days at sea he knew the name and use of every rope, sail, block, tackle, and spar in the ship, and made himself quite a favourite with the men by the earnestness with which he questioned them in regard to nautical matters and their own personal experiences. George Goff, the sail-maker, said he "was a fust-rate ...
— Sunk at Sea • R.M. Ballantyne

... from New York. I was born in a row of brown-stone fronts, in a numbered street, twenty-five or thirty houses to a block, all exactly alike. I wonder how I've outlived ...
— Ladies-In-Waiting • Kate Douglas Wiggin

... huddling herds, by that strange weight benumbed, Scarce top the surface with their antler-points. These with no hounds they hunt, nor net with toils, Nor scare with terror of the crimson plume; But, as in vain they breast the opposing block, Butcher them, knife in hand, and so dispatch Loud-bellowing, and with glad shouts hale them home. Themselves in deep-dug caverns underground Dwell free and careless; to their hearths they heave Oak-logs and elm-trees whole, and fire them there, There play the night out, and in festive glee With ...
— The Georgics • Virgil

... with handsome marble fronts. The office of the 'Chicago Tribune,' situated at the corner of one of the chief thoroughfares, is a splendid pile with a spacious corner entrance. The Potter Palmer block, chiefly occupied as a gigantic draper's shop—here called a Dry Goods' Store—is an immense pile of buildings, with massive marble front handsomely carved. But the building which promises shortly to overtop all others ...
— A Boy's Voyage Round the World • The Son of Samuel Smiles

... the subject invited Pennsylvania to furnish a block for the Washington Monument in this city, they asked also for a motto, to be inscribed upon it, which should express some idea characteristic of Pennsylvania. What was the motto selected in behalf of that great State? Did we go to Germantown ...
— A Report of the Debates and Proceedings in the Secret Sessions of the Conference Convention • Lucius Eugene Chittenden

... front—the turnpike road, which passed in front of the house and along the Moat to the Village, having been diverted in 1804—and the present Flower-garden constructed with the old Thorn-tree in the centre. Quite recently has been added the block at the N.W. angle of the house, containing Mr. Gladstone's Study, or, as he calls it, ...
— The Hawarden Visitors' Hand-Book - Revised Edition, 1890 • William Henry Gladstone

... Paris; and Winifred, Countess of Nithsdale, though living a very quiet and secluded life, was held in high estimation among all who recollected the act of wifely heroism by which she had rescued her husband from the block. ...
— A Modern Telemachus • Charlotte M. Yonge

... having my little home raided or too much visited even by confederates. I learned the other day that the old Fraser and Warren offices on the top floor of 88-90 Chancery Lane were vacant. The Midland Insurance Co. that occupied nearly all the building has cleared out and the block is to be given over to a multitude of small undertakings. Well: I secured our old rooms! Simply splendid, with the two safes that Honoria, untold ages ago, fitted into the walls, and hid so cleverly that if there is no treachery it would be hard for the police ...
— Mrs. Warren's Daughter - A Story of the Woman's Movement • Sir Harry Johnston

... master could quite disappoint them by coming home on foot the back way.—How many angry people were there!—and what sort of people?—They were mostly countrymen out of the places round—more of those than of Deerbrook folks. There were a good many of them—so many as nearly to block up the street at one part. If the ladies would step up into the boy's attic, they would see something of what was going on, from the little window there, ...
— Deerbrook • Harriet Martineau

... west of Union lane, at a spring in the side-hill, in rear of Scott's warehouse. During the season a cabin was put up for Stiles, on lot 53, east side of Bank street, north of the Herald Building, where Morgan & Root's block now stands. This was the first building for permanent settlement erected on the site of the city, although huts for temporary occupancy had been previously built in ...
— Cleveland Past and Present - Its Representative Men, etc. • Maurice Joblin

... his wonted way as he saw himself thus swayed between forces he could not control. The ordinary day's task was neglected, and he impatiently waited for the hour when he could be sure of finding Ida at home. The address was at Fulham, and, on reaching it, he found a large new block of the kind known as model lodging-houses. Ida's number was up at the very top. When he knocked, the door opened immediately, and she stood there, holding ...
— The Unclassed • George Gissing

... interview with Madame d'Argeles, presenting his conduct in the most odious light possible, pretending he had indulged in all sorts of harsh rejoinders, and making himself out to be "a man of bronze," or "a block of ...
— Baron Trigault's Vengeance - Volume 2 (of 2) • Emile Gaboriau

... instant he boldly strode to a stone block back of and to the left of the image. Seizing it by the top, he gave the impression that he was about to lift the great stone. Instead, however, he merely slid from its position a thin slab, pushing it half way off ...
— Nedra • George Barr McCutcheon

... corresponds to the social atmosphere pervading the snug, white-painted, green-blinded New England villages, and this little exists chiefly in the southern counties, in communities of people transported in block—traditions, conventionalities, prejudices, and all. There is, in general, no merit attached to conformity, and one may take a wide range of rope without necessarily arousing distrust. Speaking broadly, in California the virtues of life spring ...
— California and the Californians • David Starr Jordan

... innocents," he muttered to himself. "They wouldn't have got half a block with that money if I hadn't been along. I wonder how they'll make out getting away. Live in the country, the girl said. They should stay there, then. The city's certainly no place for ...
— The Unknown Wrestler • H. A. (Hiram Alfred) Cody

... has been the belief of other writers besides Gustave Flaubert, inspiriting them to a desperate and fruitful industry. It is an amiable fancy, like the dream of Michael Angelo, who loved to imagine that the statue existed already in the block of marble, and had only to be stripped of its superfluous wrappings, or like the indolent fallacy of those economic soothsayers to whom Malthus brought rough awakening, that population and the means of subsistence move side by side in harmonious ...
— Style • Walter Raleigh

... glimmering, here and there, as he turned down the, not very elegant, street on which was located the haven of "Forty Rods," and when he was within a block of the place, a man, coming suddenly around the corner, ran square ...
— The Diamond Coterie • Lawrence L. Lynch

... rivet fast, and bend them down Till from the belly more they seem to have grown Than in it to be ended, so well sunk And grooved they be. There's for the horse's trunk. But as for head and legs, these from the block Epeios carved, and fixed them on the stock With long pins spigotted and clamps of steel; And then the tail, downsweeping to the heel, He carved and rivetted in place. Yet more He did; for cunningly he made a door Beneath the belly of him, ...
— Helen Redeemed and Other Poems • Maurice Hewlett

... operations for her capture, or destruction, effective steps have been taken to block the Koenigsberg in by inking colliers in the only ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, November 18, 1914 • Various

... once more applied that compelling pressure to the younger man's bony forearm. Linked by that hold they left the Starfall, came into the cooler, far more pleasant atmosphere of the street. They were a block away before Vye's guide halted, though he did not release ...
— Star Hunter • Andre Alice Norton

... bodyguard - not only held back pupils from going to the Dutchmen, but by spies and detectives, by imprisonment and death, kept thinning out of Japan the most intelligent and active spirits. It is the old story of a power upon its last legs - learning to the bastille, and courage to the block; when there are none left but sheep and donkeys, the State will have been saved. But a man must not think to cope with a Revolution; nor a minister, however fortified with guards, to hold in check a country that had given birth to such men ...
— Familiar Studies of Men & Books • Robert Louis Stevenson

... diffused warmth of the one subject, and diffused twilight in the other, are complete; and they will finally be to you more impressive than if they had been wrought out with every superficial means of effect, on each block. ...
— Ariadne Florentina - Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving • John Ruskin

... stupefied. Two needlewomen were taken in at the lodgings in Wyndham Street; parcels from Swan and Edgar's,—Marshall and Snellgrove were not then, or at least had not loomed to the grandeur of an entire block of houses,—addressed to Lady Anna Lovel, were frequent at the door, somewhat to the disgust of the shopmen, who did not like to send goods to Lady Anna Lovel in Wyndham Street. But ready money was paid, and the parcels came home. Lady Anna, poor girl, was dismayed much by the parcels, but ...
— Lady Anna • Anthony Trollope

... early examples of statues of gods that may still be seen or are recorded by extant copies, we find that these fall into two classes. On the one hand, there are more or less exact repetitions of the primitive stock or stone, the cylindrical tree-trunk or the rectangular block cut from the quarry, with the rudest indication of head and arms and feet, deviating as little as possible from the original shape of the block. When images of this sort were, as was often the case, of wood, they have, of ...
— Religion and Art in Ancient Greece • Ernest Arthur Gardner

... The faint creak of block and tackle reached her listening ears, which she strained and strained, even closing her eyes that she might concentrate wholly on the sense of hearing. The creaking continued for a couple of ...
— The Meadow-Brook Girls by the Sea - Or The Loss of The Lonesome Bar • Janet Aldridge

... Pisgah, and the more cheerful and jolly and ordinary we are on the way the sooner we shall get over the journey. The noblest Englishman that ever lived, and the most deeply serious, was as full of innocent mirth as a child and laid his head down on the block with a jest. Let us keep our course by the stars, by all means, but the immediate tasks are much nearer ...
— Pebbles on the Shore • Alpha of the Plough (Alfred George Gardiner)

... him coming a block away, and she ran down to the gate to meet him as he trudged in. Bob looked up into his mother's face. The quick concern in her eyes, as she saw the battered little lip and the stained chin, came nearer to making him sob than Curly's blow had done; but, though ...
— McClure's Magazine, Vol 31, No 2, June 1908 • Various

... land is about 300 ft. Towards the north-west, north and east the less rocky coast is indented by several bays, with open sandy shores, of which those of Crabby, Brave, Corblets and Longy are the most noteworthy. South-west of Longy Bay, where the coast rises boldly, there is a remarkable projecting block of sandstone, called La Roche Pendante (Hanging Rock) overhanging the cliff. Sandstone (mainly along the north-east coast), granite and porphyry are the chief geological formations. There are a few streams, but water is obtained mainly ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... the prince seized his dagger between his teeth, fastened his sash to a block of stone, took his axe in one hand, and with the other slid down this substitute for a rope; falling a few steps from the wild beast, he sprang upon her, and, swift as lightning, dealt her two mortal strokes, just ...
— The Wandering Jew, Complete • Eugene Sue

... children once more from the ground and pressed them to his breast; then he gave them over to the bailiff of Kohlhaasenbrueck, and while the latter, weeping quietly, led them away from the square, Kohlhaas advanced to the block. ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IV • Editor-in-Chief: Kuno Francke

... sandy crumbling stone, which would neither bear the weight of an heavy pestle, nor would break the corn without filling it with sand; so, after a great deal of time lost in searching for a stone, I gave it over, and resolved to look out a great block of hard wood, which I found indeed much easier; and getting one as big as I had strength to stir, I rounded it, and formed it on the outside with my axe and hatchet; and then with the help of fire and infinite labour, ...
— The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808) • Daniel Defoe

... sought, she moved her hand in a certain pattern before it so that the faint radiance streaming from the tiny sun, gleamed on the grayness of the wall. There was a grating, as from metal long unused, and a block fell back, opening a ...
— The Gifts of Asti • Andre Alice Norton

... other stubbornly. "A block of solid ivory from the collar up. I'm—I'm young in the head," he concluded, with supreme effort ...
— The Clarion • Samuel Hopkins Adams

... palace of Amunoph III. and the Nile are two colossal statues, each hewn from a single block of stone. These figures, although in a sitting posture, are sixty feet high. It is thought that they once formed the entrance to an avenue of similar figures leading up to the palace. It has been supposed that the most northern statue represents Ammon, and that its companion piece is his Mother. ...
— The God-Idea of the Ancients - or Sex in Religion • Eliza Burt Gamble

... question proved to be nothing more singular than a square block of stone placed under an old chair. And yet as the guide continued to speak, they felt that ...
— A Duet • A. Conan Doyle

... you were powerful enough to block any kind of a banking loan I might try to secure and I was desperate until Bill Conway managed to arrange for his financing. Then, of course, I realized my power. With the dam completed before the redemption period ...
— The Pride of Palomar • Peter B. Kyne

... had to come up, as the navy saying has it, for "more juice." To be more explicit, a submersible has a mechanical process, a combination motor and dynamo between the engine, which drives the boat when it is on the surface, and the thrust block through which the shaft runs to the propeller. This motor-dynamo, serving as a motor, drives the boat when she is beneath the water. When the electric power is exhausted the boat comes to the surface, the motor is disconnected from ...
— Our Navy in the War • Lawrence Perry

... because both of them imply the same postulate, viz. that "everything is given," either at the beginning or at the end, whilst evolution is nothing if it is not, on the contrary, "that which gives." Let us take care not to confound evolution and development. There is the stumbling-block of the usual transformist theories, and Mr Bergson devotes to it a closely argued and singularly penetrating criticism, by an example which he analyses in detail. ("Creative Evolution", chapter i.) These theories either do not explain ...
— A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson • Edouard le Roy

... to take a city block and construct fireproof, high buildings than to solve transportation problems. We are losing our fear of the high buildings as we see the great value of light and air. There is chance for work ...
— Euthenics, the science of controllable environment • Ellen H. Richards

... wild with panic, and there with voice and hand I bade them stand on that vantage ground and block the way against the Danes; bidding them remember the helpless ones in the town, who must have time to fly, and how the Danes must needs shrink from a ...
— A Thane of Wessex • Charles W. Whistler

... of another mystery of the sea came in to-day when the schooner Abbie Rose dropped anchor in the upper river, manned only by a crew of one. It appears that the out-bound freighter Mercury sighted the Abbie Rose off Block Island on Thursday last, acting in a suspicious manner. A boat-party sent aboard found the schooner in perfect order and condition, sailing under four lower sails, the topsails being pursed up to the mastheads but not stowed. With the exception of a yellow cat, the vessel was ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1915 - And the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various

... they were both suspicious and envious of his superior advantages. However backward Frederic may have been in the beginning to monopolize the notice and time of his "sisterly friend," he was not an insensate block, who could not perceive and value the compliment paid him by her partiality—ever apparent, but never unmaidenly. Impute it to whatever motive he might, the distinction titillated his vanity, touched, at least, the outermost covering of his heart. It might be pity, it might be pleasant, mournful ...
— At Last • Marion Harland

... wisely if I had jumped down on the trottoir, and run round the block of carriages in front of the barouche. But, unfortunately, I was more of a Murat than a Moltke, and preferred a direct charge upon my object to relying on tactique. I dashed across the back seat ...
— The Room in the Dragon Volant • J. Sheridan Le Fanu

... persuaded Tom that someone working in the interests of the W.C. & A. Railroad Company was still employing Black in an attempt to block the successful completion of the ...
— The Young Engineers in Colorado • H. Irving Hancock

... way to the hinder part of the wagons. A court was in session; and these were the wagons of lawyers and clients, alike humble in their style of equipage. On the left-hand side of the hotel, down the eastern slope of the hill ran an irregular block of brick buildings, no two of a height or size, The block had burned down in spots several times, and each owner had rebuilt as much or as little as he chose, which had resulted in as incoherent a bit of architecture as is often seen. The general effect, however, was of a tendency to a certain ...
— Mercy Philbrick's Choice • Helen Hunt Jackson

... treason!" exclaimed the miserable King. "Brandanes, your noble Prince—" Here his grief and agitation interrupted for a moment the fatal information it was his object to convey. At length he resumed his broken speech: "An axe and a block instantly into the courtyard! Arrest—" The word choked ...
— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott

... the light of this double way of viewing the right balance of the mind, the better understand the combination of earnestness with tolerance which inconsiderate persons are apt to find so awkward a stumbling-block in the scheme of philosophic liberalism. Many people in our time have so ill understood the doctrine of liberty, that in some of the most active circles in society they now count you a bigot if you hold any proposition to be decidedly and unmistakably more true ...
— Critical Miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 3) - Essay 2: The Death of Mr Mill - Essay 3: Mr Mill's Autobiography • John Morley

... in dominoes is either to block the game so that the adversary cannot play or it is to make the two ends when added together equal to some multiple of a given number, or it is to make both ends of the line the same. The player first getting rid of all his ...
— Entertainments for Home, Church and School • Frederica Seeger

... of bronze must have been one of foreign commerce, as tin, which enters into this metallic mixture in the proportion of about ten per cent to the copper, was obtained by the ancients chiefly from Cornwall. (Diodorus 5, 21, 22 and Sir H. James Note on Block of Tin dredged up in Falmouth Harbour. Royal Institution of Cornwall 1863.) Very few human bones of the bronze period have been met with in the Danish peat, or in the Swiss lake-dwellings, and this scarcity is generally attributed by archaeologists ...
— The Student's Elements of Geology • Sir Charles Lyell

... stiff precision. By day and by night sentinels paced the walls. True, the walls were crumbling, and the whole force was constantly engaged in propping them up, but none the less did the sentinels pace with dignity. What was it to the captain if, while he sternly inspected the muskets in the block-house, the lieutenant, with a detail of men, was hard at work strengthening its underpinning? None the less did he inspect. The sally-port, mended but imposing; the flag-staff with its fair-weather and storm flags; the frowning iron grating; ...
— Castle Nowhere • Constance Fenimore Woolson

... an insurmountable problem, but Bill had all the ingenuity of a sailor. With a small "jack" he tilted first one end of the launch and then the other and passed slings under it. Then he rigged a block and tackle to the mizzen-mast, and heaved on it till he had dragged the launch along the deck on rollers, made by sawing a spare spar into lengths, and hoisted it up on the poop deck. Then, detaching his tackle from the mast, he swung the boom ...
— The Boy Aviators' Treasure Quest • Captain Wilbur Lawton

... stair-foot, and with difficulty saved himself. A light, a light! cried he to the maid, quick, quick! at last the maid came with a light, and he went down stairs with her; but when he gav that the stumbling-block he had kicked down was a dead man, he was so frightened, that he invoked Moses, Aaron, Joshua, and Esdras, and all the other prophets of his law. Unhappy man that I am! said he, what induced me to come down without a light? I have e'en made an end of the fellow who ...
— The Arabian Nights Entertainments Volume 1 • Anonymous

... more, and I marveled again at the quickness and clearness of his directions. I was to buy one hundred shares of this stock, sell five hundred of that stock, buy one thousand of another in blocks of one hundred, and sell the same in a single block at the ...
— Blindfolded • Earle Ashley Walcott

... to, my heart detains me here, This heart that swells with pain. Go home? To me The very door of my own house is hateful. I cannot enter, but some creditor Would block my way. ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various

... the dead face. And the sharp, heavy bruise of ice bruised his living bowels. He wondered if he himself were freezing too, freezing from the inside. In the short blond moustache the life-breath was frozen into a block of ice, beneath the silent ...
— Women in Love • D. H. Lawrence

... a new commonwealth, would find the task easier among a race of simple mountaineers, than among the dwellers in cities where society is corrupt; as the sculptor can more easily carve a fair statue from a rough block, than from the block which has been badly shaped out by another. But taking all this into account, I maintain that the religion introduced by Numa was one of the chief causes of the prosperity of Rome, since it gave rise to good ordinances, which in turn brought with them ...
— Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius • Niccolo Machiavelli

... not been a particularly prominent figure; his disposition at cricket to block and to bowl "sneaks" and "twisters" under-arm had raised his average rather than his reputation; he had evaded fights and dramatic situations, and protected himself upon occasions of unavoidable violence ...
— The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman • H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

... a block of wood, and when the other had finished answered: "I don't know who you are, and don't care; and for the present you may talk as much as you like, though when I am at liberty I also shall have a ...
— The Story of the Guides • G. J. Younghusband

... ships hove in sight, they were hailed from the giant's castle and made to pay heavy toll. Poor or rich, they had to hand over their money. If any captain refused, he was brought ashore and made to kneel before a block and place one hand upon the other. Then the giant swung his axe and cut off both hands, and flung them into the river. If a ship master hesitated, because he had no money, he was cast into a dungeon, until his friends paid ...
— Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks • William Elliot Griffis

... building a business block in Chicago, which had come to a tangle owing to labor conditions. Throughout the country there was a movement for the ten-hour day, and there were many strikes, particularly in ...
— Children of the Market Place • Edgar Lee Masters

... the place to unload," the doctor then said. "It's necessary to block up the mouth ...
— Library of the World's Best Mystery and Detective Stories • Edited by Julian Hawthorne

... gentlemen: Mr Trapland, if we must do our office, tell us. We have half a dozen gentlemen to arrest in Pall Mall and Covent Garden; and if we don't make haste the chairmen will be abroad, and block up the chocolate-houses, ...
— Love for Love • William Congreve

... obsequies which seem to him the most fitting. He throws him in the cave, that he may lie on the heaped gold and have the coveted treasure at last for his own. He drags Fafner to the cave's mouth, that his bulk may block it. "Lie there, you too, dark dragon! Guard at once the shining treasure and the treasure-loving enemy; thus ...
— The Wagnerian Romances • Gertrude Hall

... travertine Which Gandolf from his tomb-top chuckles at! Nay, boys, ye love me—all of jasper, then! 'Tis jasper ye stand pledged to, lest I grieve My bath must needs be left behind, alas! {70} One block, pure green as a pistachio-nut, There's plenty jasper somewhere in the world— And have I not Saint Praxed's ear to pray Horses for ye, and brown Greek manuscripts, And mistresses with great smooth marbly limbs? —That's if ye carve my epitaph ...
— Introduction to Robert Browning • Hiram Corson

... God knows what might come of it if they send the lawyers here to poke their noses into the affair like hunting-dogs. I cannot get M. Schmucke to sell a few pictures unless you like me well enough to keep the secret—such a secret!—With your head on the block, you must not say where the pictures come from, nor who it was that sold them. When M. Pons is once dead and buried, you understand, nobody will know how many pictures there ought to be; if there are fifty-three pictures instead of sixty-seven, nobody will be any ...
— Cousin Pons • Honore de Balzac

... I could return that kindness for a time with energetic enthusiasm. Never did I feel this so strongly as on the night which parted us. But I could not help rejoicing when he was swept from my path—could not help sorrowing when he was again restored to be a stumbling-block in my paths." ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott

... a street car, Johnny turned abruptly to the right and trailed a taxi for half a block; then he shot across the sidewalk to the end of a dark alley. Then he flattened himself against the wall and listened. Yes, it came at last, the faint thud of cautious footsteps. He had not thrown the man off ...
— Triple Spies • Roy J. Snell

... castle left about it. There is a square block of a tower, and you can trace the moat and some remains ...
— Lord Kilgobbin • Charles Lever

... nearly accomplished some hidden flaw discloses itself, and a stone that had appeared of great value proves to be almost worthless; or the men when chipping the rough granite may suddenly find a flake too much has been chipped off by mistake, which involves not merely the loss of that block but of the labour ...
— Through Finland in Carts • Ethel Brilliana Alec-Tweedie

... said, "we burrow into the ground like animals, but we do not take their precautions. A fox or a rabbit always has a second hole by which he can escape if there is anything wrong with the first. Ours is without doubt a dangerous pit, and if anything happened to block the shaft, the poor fellows down below ...
— Son Philip • George Manville Fenn

... difficult in the press of people to distinguish a single person, but fortunately the street was fairly clear of traffic, and he saw her crossing the road near the Mansion House. He hastened after her and saw her enter a block of offices in Cornhill. He reached the door of this building in time to see her being carried out of sight in the lift. He entered the hall and stood by the gate until the ...
— The Foolish Lovers • St. John G. Ervine

... and lye caught in wooden troughs. This was then boiled down and made into soap. My mother let me help stir it many a time. Then the big kettle would be lifted from the fire and left until cold. My mother would then block it off, and put on a wooden plank to dry ...
— Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States - From Interviews with Former Slaves - Kentucky Narratives • Works Projects Administration

... passes, presents conditions which well adapt it to become the settlement of man. Still more suitable in this respect are the adjacent slopes and the coast-districts on the east, south, and west. On the east coast the plain of Apulia, shut in towards the north by the mountain-block of the Abruzzi and only broken by the steep isolated ridge of Garganus, stretches in a uniform level with but a scanty development of coast and stream. On the south coast, between the two peninsulas in which the Apennines terminate, ...
— The History of Rome (Volumes 1-5) • Theodor Mommsen

... Chicagoan whom Cowperwood sought out was the president of the Lake City National Bank, the largest financial organization in the city, with deposits of over fourteen million dollars. It was located in Dearborn Street, at Munroe, but a block or two ...
— The Titan • Theodore Dreiser

... alone, which is imputed as righteousness to all believers solely by faith. It rejects all those who teach otherwise, but not directly and expressly the statement: Good works are necessary to salvation. The third article maintains that, also after the Fall, man is not a block, but a rational creature having a free, though weak, will in external things; but that in divine and spiritual matters his intellect is utterly blind and his will is dead; and that hence, unless God creates a new volition in him, man is unable of himself, of his own powers, to accept ...
— Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church • Friedrich Bente

... complacency was so ineffectual, that, far from suspecting the true cause of it, the commodore, that very evening, at the club, in presence of her brother, with whom by this time he could take any manner of freedom, did not scruple to d— her for a squinting, block-faced, chattering p— kitchen; and immediately after drank "Despair to all old maids." The toast Mr. Pickle pledged without the least hesitation, and next day intimated to his sister, who bore the indignity with surprising resignation, ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett

... there is no special reason why the bank in your story should be located on the corner of the street, and the director might be able to locate a bank suitable for the purpose of the scene in question within a block or two of the studio. If there is a really important reason for having the bank on the corner, he may have to go a mile or more away from the studio to find one; and, inasmuch as it is frequently the case that the ...
— Writing the Photoplay • J. Berg Esenwein and Arthur Leeds

... of us is the King's Head, whose steep tiled roof and square front has just that air of respectable importance that one expects to find in an old established English hotel. It looks across the cobbled space to the curious block of buildings that seems to have been intended for a church but has relapsed into shops. The shouldering of secular buildings against the walls of churches is a sight so familiar in parts of France that this market place has an almost Continental flavour, in keeping with the fact ...
— Yorkshire Painted And Described • Gordon Home

... content to satisfy himself with the suggestion that he looked upon himself as degraded by the public spectacle which he had made of himself, fighting on a tin roof, for the delectation of everybody a block or two around. But he wasn't entirely satisfied with that explanation of it. Once he went a little too far and wrote in his diary that his case was worse than that of the prodigal son. He said the prodigal son merely fed swine, he didn't have to chum with them. But he struck that out, and ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... divinity-student, if he was overcome by those yearnings of human sympathy which predominate so much more in the sermons of the Master than in the writings of his successors, and which have made the parable of the Prodigal Son the consolation of mankind, as it has been the stumbling-block of all ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. IV, No. 26, December, 1859 • Various



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