block, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

block n.¹

1. a fool, an idiot.

1549		T. Chaloner (trans.) Erasmus Praise of Folie (1509) 33: If [a philosopher] must bie any thyng, make a bargaine, or briefely doe ought of those thynges, without whiche this commen life can not be ledde, then sooner will ye take hym for a blocke, than a reasonable creature.
1550		Udall Ralph Roister Doister III iii: Ye are such a calf, such an ass, such a block.
c.1580		‘I.T.’ Grim The Collier of Croydon IV i: Come Iugg, let’s leave these sencelesse Blocks, Giving each other blowes and knocks.
c.1591		Shakespeare Two Gentlemen of Verona II v: speed.: What an ass art thou! I understand thee not. launce.: What a block art thou, that thou canst not!
1602		J. Cooke How A Man May Choose A Good Wife From A Bad Act I: What a block is that, To say, God saue you! is the fellow mad.
1611		Davies of Hereford Scourge of Folly 145: The Shep-herd’s a Knaue, or a Block.
1616		Jonson Devil is an Ass II ii: Away, you broker’s block, you property!
1623		Massinger Bondman II ii: This will bring him on, Or hee’s a blocke.
1642		D. Rogers Naaman the Syrian 4: Our faculty to understand is still left in us, so that we are not meere blockes and beetles.
1656		R. Fletcher (trans.) Martiall his Epigrams XII No. 53 119: Why dost delude us with this foolerie As though we Blocks or Idiots had bin?
1682		E. Hickeringill The Mushroom in Works (1709) II 368: And we, poor Blocks [...] Are glad to turn his lines upon him now.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Block, a silly Fellow.
1701		N. Ward ‘Battel without Bloodshed’ Writings (1704) (2nd edn) 121: The Knave that has Brains, and the Fool that’s a Block.
1748		Dyche & Pardon New General Eng. Dict. (5th edn) n.p.: Block (s.) ... sometimes an ignorant, stupid fellow.
1768		E. Gayton Festivous Notes II v 98: While Sancho, tho’ a stupid block, / Wish’d to be with her on the rock.
1785		L. Macnally Fashionable Levities I i: The fellow has come into life through as many shapes as an Orkney Barnacle, he was first a block, then a worm, and is now a goose.
1787		‘A Twiggle & a Friz’ Garland of New Songs 8: There’s the painted doll, and the powder’d fop, / With many a block that wears a wig.
1829		Australian (Sydney) 12 May 4/1: [H]e was remanded until the following day, in order that Mr. Street, the owner of the Glutton, might state whether ‘old block’ [i.e. a sailor] had his authority to remove anything out of the vessel.
1837–8		‘The Lady’s Snatchbox’ Cuckold’s Nest 27: So, you that are fond of the spree, / And are not as senseless as blocks, / You quickly will hasten to me, / For a snatch at my little snatch box.
1881		Besant & Rice Chaplain of the Fleet II 88: She said that her partner was delightful to dance with, partly because he was a lord – and a title, she said, gives an air of grace to any block.
1890		H. Nisbet ‘Bail Up!’ 206: A trusting old block your father must be!
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 76: I found the old block lying senseless.
1896		G.M. Fenn Sappers and Miners 142: What an obstinate old block you were, Ydoll.
1934		H. Roth Call It Sleep (1977) 270: ‘Witless block!’ he ground out.
1942		E. Cross Tailor and Ansty 42: There was a dancing master in my time, by the name of Moriarty, who had an awkward block of a fellow to teach.

2. the head; 20C+ use mainly in knock someone’s block off

1608		‘The Turk in Linen’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) III 5: The Spaynyards constant to his blocke, / the ffrench inconstant ever; / but of all ffelts may be ffelt, / give me the English bever.
1635		J. Shirley Lady of Pleasure II i: Buy a beaver for thy own block.
1661		‘Old England turned New’ in Ebsworth Merry Drollery Compleat (1875) 267: We have new fashion’d beards, and new fashion’d locks, / And new fashion’d hats for your new pated blocks.
1699		‘Old England turn’d New’ in Playford Pills to Purge Melancholy I 140: New fashion’d Hats, for your new pated Blocks.
1705–07		N. Ward Hudibras Redivivus II:3 27: In his high-flying Trousers drest, / With Hat squeez’d down upon his Block.
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy III 120: [as cit. 1661].
1787		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Peter’s Pension’ Works (1794) II 167: Mistress Damer’s block, That boasts some little likeness of you, Sire.
1835		‘Rampant Moll Was A Rum Old Mot’ in Secret Songster 5: She batter’d his block – vhich gave him a shock.
1845		Bell’s Life in Sydney 20 Sept. 3/2: He [...] made another tremendous charge with his block, catching the mad’un in the pantry, which caused him to make an immediate deposit of all the luxuries contained in his storeroom.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1853		C.R. Read What I Heard, Saw, and Did 72: This man [...] was going to punch the block of a man three times his size.
1862		H. Kingsley Ravenshoe II 86: I cleaned a groom’s boots on Toosday, and he punched my block because I blacked the tops.
1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 9: *e.
1903		Ade ‘Hickey Boy and the Grip’ in In Babel 110: I’d get up and try to cool the block with a wet towel, an’ then you’d see the steam comin’ off of me.
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 10 July 1/1: The mutilated blocks of some of the lords of stoush would shock a dingo from his dinner.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 56: On his block was a new effect in sky pieces for gentlemanly detectives.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 24 Apr. 3/3: The girls say he woul be [the ncest boy in town] if he wasn’t so soft in the block .
1922		‘J.H. Ross’ Mint (1955) 115: There’s more fucking cheese on your knob than hair on your block.
1936		Mencken Amer. Lang. (4th edn) 557: The French word tête has been a sound name for the human head for many centuries, but its origin was in testa, meaning a pot, a favorite slang word of the soldiers of the decaying Roman Empire, exactly analogous to our block, nut and bean.
1940		A.P. Herbert Let Us Be Glum (1941) 14: Sock the Wops and knock their blocks / Sock the Wop until he crocks.
1968		(con. 1928) S. Gore Holy Smoke 96: block: The head.
2001		OnLine Dict. of Playground Sl. 🌐 block n. head.

3. in drug packaging.

(a) (US drugs) a cube of morphine.

1937		B. Dai Opium Addiction in Chicago.
1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 99/2: block. 1. A cube of morphine; any portion of an ounce as sold in a bindle, usually 2 to 5 grains. 2. Crude bootleg morphine.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1953		Anslinger & Tompkins Traffic In Narcotics 306: block. A bindle of morphine.

(b) (drugs) compressed hashish or marijuana.

1971		E.E. Landy Underground Dict. (1972).
2001		ONDCP Street Terms 3: Block — Marijuana.

2011		Young Jeezy ‘Ballin’’ 🎵 You think you ballin' cause you got a block?
2014		Young Jeezy ‘Quarter Block’ 🎵 Hit them up with that quarter block / Yeaaaahhhh, that quarter block.

In derivatives

blockish (adj.)

stupid; thus blockishness n., stupidity; adv. blockishly in a stupid manner.

c.1535		R. Copland Hye Way to Spyttel House Aiii: It were but lost, for blockysh braynes dull.
1556		N. Grimalde [trans.] Cicero thre bokes of duties n.p.: [They] do proue sowre, sowring, blockish, rusticall, & farre from all ciuilnesse of life [...] 50: [T]wo faultes we must speciallie take heede of: that nothing womannishly, or deyntily, and nothing blockishly [...] we doo.
1560		J. Calvin Sermons 12: [T]here are many blockish persons (and the mooste part) which feare death [ibid.] 62: [T]hem that are so blockish that they wyll in no case thynke vpon that which they haue deserued of God.
1578		Lyly Euphues and his England (1916) 132: For children [...] of obstinate and blockish behaviour are neither with words to be persuaded, neither with stripes to be corrected.
1583		P. Stubbes Anatomie of Abuses 95: In this kinde of practise they continue [...] yea, half a yeer together, swilling and gulling, night and day, till they be drunke as Apes, and as blockish as beasts.
1594		R. Carew (trans.) Huarte’s Examination of Men’s Wits 317: If he shew blockish and vntoward, we inferre, that he was formed of the seed of his mother.
1607		T. Walkington Optic Glasse of Humors 13: Whom do wee euer reade of more to quaffe and carouse, more to vse strong drinkes than the Scythians, and who are more blockish, and deuoid of witt and reason?
1610		Rowlands Martin Mark-all 23: Hauing little or no other water [...] dooth so worke within their bodies, such a distemperature, that thereof proceedeth a marueilous lumpishnesse and melancholy blockishnesse.
1622		Massinger Virgin-Martyr IV i: A blockish idiot!
1646		Parliament of Women B4: Mistris Tabitha Teare-sheete then stood up and began to puffe and sniffe, and said [...] if they be shrewish or shie, try it out with them at sharp, or if beetle-head and blockish, with blunter weapons.
1650		J. Rogers First epistle of Peter 175: [T]o drive a man to dispair, were either to make men blockishly careless what they did, or desperately to rage.
1650		M. Sędziwój A New Light of Alchemie 117: Lips great beneath, signifie a man to be dull, foolish, and blockish, &c.
1680		E. Hickeringill Reflections on Late Libel etc. 18: Such a plain blockish Englishman was I, that I could not spy where the Mischief, or the Popery lay.
1690		‘Teague’ Teagueland Jests II 176: [P]itying the invincible Blockishness of the Kern, [she] would not take any Revenge on him.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew.
1865		H. Kingsley Hillyars and Burtons (1870) 334: The smiddy of a somewhat blockish blacksmith. [Ibid.] 354: A nature so low, so sensual, so selfish, so surrounded with a [...] shell of impenetrable blockishness.

In compounds

blockbuster (n.)

see separate entry.

blockhead (n.)

see separate entry.

In phrases

do one’s block (v.) (also do one’s block in, do the block)(Aus.)

1. to lose emotional control, to lose one’s temper.

1904		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Jan. 6/3: Star was on the run in the eighth, and had done his block.
1908		Bulletin (Sydney) 1 Oct. 20/1: The bug wheels swift are buzzing in / Our shattered cocoa-box; / For we are ‘off our pannikin’; / We’ve fairly ‘done our blocks’; / We’re ratty, touched, our brains are gone.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘’Ave a ’Eart!’ in Rose of Spadgers 76: Rat-face does ’is block. / ’E loosens up a string uv epi-tits.
1933		(con. WWI) A.E. Strong in Partridge Sl. Today and Yesterday 287: Fritz landed a daisy-cutter and the transport driver done his block.
1939		Argus (Melbourne) 23 Dec. 65/4: But where, oh where, did we get ‘Pratting in one’s frame’, ‘Doing one’s block,’ ‘Getting into a yike,‘ [and] ‘Snifter’.
1949		L. Glassop Lucky Palmer 17: All right, all right [...] You’ll all be paid. Don’t do the block.
1950		(con. 1936–46) K.S. Prichard Winged Seeds (1984) 117: He came to see me after he’d cracked Wally: was a bit upset and that he’d done his block.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 91: That was all Sir Garnet with me, except that I had the breeze up that Ziegler might do his block.
1959		D. Niland Big Smoke 145: And he got you so you lost your block and took to him and done for him.
1963		‘Nino Culotta’ Gone Fishin’ 82: Get to hell out of here before me big mate does his block.
1971		A. Buzo The Roy Murphy Show (1973) 118: I will do me block. This is supposed to be a football programme, not a fashion parade.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 77: I’ll finish up doin’ me block and hitting her.
1988		B. Humphries Complete Barry McKenzie 11: Shit, I just done me block again. Something snapped.
1990		T. Winton Human Torpedo 31: I can honestly tell them I’m doin’ me block.
2003		Bug (Aus.) May 🌐 I did have the misfortune of coming in at the tailend of a Bunny interview [...] He was doing his block in that snivelling, mumbling way he does his nana.

2. to fall in love; to become obsessed with.

1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 16 Sept. 4/7: I’m doin’ me block over a tart round at a willin’ rubby.
1915		C.J. Dennis Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 47: I done me block complete on this Doreen, / An’ now me ’art is broke, me life’s a wreck.
1919		Aussie (France) 12 Mar. 6/1: I nearly did me block on a bonzer tabby I met over there.
1931		V. Palmer Separate Lives 220: There was a sheelah back in Salisbury who did her block on me [OED].
1938		N. Lindsay Age Of Consent 195: ‘What do you mean by dippy?’ ‘What I mean, do her block in suddenly and flop all over a man.’.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 320: Yer like a bloke with his first skirt—done yer block over her.

3. to go mad, to become irrational.

1916

C.J. Dennis ‘War’ in Moods of Ginger Mick 26: An’ when yeh ’ear I’ve took a soljer’s job, / I gave yeh leave to say I’ve done me block, / An’ got a flock uv weevils in me knob.

keep one’s block (v.) [antonym of lose one’s block ] (Aus.)

to remain calm, to keep one’s head.

1909		A. Wright A Rogue’s Luck (1931) 162: If yer c’n fight, keep yer block, an yer got er chance.
1915		C.J. Dennis Songs of a Sentimental Bloke gloss. 🌐 To keep the block – To remain calm; dispassionate.
1963		R. McGregor-Hastie Compleat Migrant 105: Block, to keep the: to keep calm.

knock someone’s block off (v.) (also beat someone’s block off, blow…, punch…, wallop...)

to injure someone physically; usu. in the form of a threat, I’ll knock….

1896		S. Crane in N.Y. Journal 25 Oct. in Stallman (1966) 164: If youse gits gay, I’ll knock yer block off.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 285: The Saloon Men were shrieking to the Participants to Beat his Block off and Jam him in the Kisser.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 154: Sorry to trouble you, but I’ve got to knock your block off.
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew Pt 9 🌐 ‘I don’t like to wallop a sick man,’ Shorty explained, his fist doubled menacingly. ‘But I’d wallop his block off if it’d make him well.’.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) 237: I oughta knock your block off for you.
1914		M. Glass Abe And Mawruss 205: Come along quiet [...] or I’ll knock yer block awff.
1917		F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I viii: You sit down, or I’ll blow your block off!
1923		Wodehouse Leave it to Psmith (1993) 502: I’d like [...] to beat your block off.
1928		M.C. Sharpe Chicago May (1929) 32: He never squawked, though he talked a great deal to his intimates about knocking my block off.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 286: As the fellow said when they blew his block off.
1931		R.E. Howard ‘TNT Punch’ Action Stories Jan. 🌐 I still intends to punch his block off some day.
1935		Essex Newsman 19 Jan. 1/7: Defendant threatened to ‘knock his block off’.
1936		‘George Orwell’ Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1962) 193: If that man wasn’t too drunk to stand, I’d knock his block off.
1939		‘Flann O’Brien’ At Swim-Two-Birds 166: I’ll knock your bloody block off if you say another word. Apologize!
1948		C. Day Lewis Otterbury Incident 83: The Officers of the Court then had to restrain Nick from knocking the Prune’s block off.
1949		(con. 1944) F.A. Johnson One More Hill 169: I’ll have his heinie square block knocked off.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 332: One more squeak out of you and I’ll knock yer bloody block off.
1962		S. Longstreet Flesh Peddlers (1964) 87: Next time I meet that Cockney hamola, Ronnie Galt, I’m going to knock his block off.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 165: I shall be happy to knock his ugly block off.
1982		J. Davis Kullark 56: If you was a man I’d knock your block off for doing that.
1991		Desperate Dan Special No. 7 25: Gimme that sword afore I knock yer block off!
2000		T. Udo Vatican Bloodbath 15: Ah’m gonnae knock your fuckin’ block off, ya cheeky wee shite!
2012		(con. 1954) ‘Jack Tunney’ Tomato Can Comeback [ebook] You almost got your block knocked off tonight.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 245: ‘Why didn’t you take a stroll down to the sty and tell the Law you’d knocked some junkie’s block off’.

lose one’s block (v.) (Aus.)

to lose emotional control, to lose one’s temper.

1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Sept. 13/1: ‘Orright,’ sizzi, ‘don’t loosyerblock, / You’ll meeter byunbye.’.
1914		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Aug. 32/4: [T]hey were nine all an’ the excitement intense, the judge and ref’ree losin’ their blocks an’ barrackin’ for all they was worth.
1920		B. Cronin Timber Wolves 218: Well, don’t lose your block, whatever you do.
1934		West Australian 5 Dec. 15/1: I am very, very sorry, I did not mean to do it. I lost my block.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 16/1: block phr. [...] lose your block [...] lose your temper; from C17 English word for ‘head’; eg ‘Docherty, if you used your block, boy, instead of losing it, you might yet make a boxer.’.
2009		P. Yeldham Bitter Harvest [ebook] ‘Look, shut up, will you. Just shut up.’ ‘Don’t lose your block.'’.

off one’s block (adj.) (orig. milit.)

1. angry.

1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 26: ‘Off his block’, angry.
2017		T. Spicer Good Girl Stripped Bare 105: Her boss is a moustachioed menace, who often goes off his block.

2. insane.

1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.] 19: BLOCK [...] – off his: to muddle, to make mistakes, to act foolishly, Also [...] any one mad or silly.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 26: ‘Off his block’, [...] off his head.
1940		F. Sargeson ‘A Good Boy’ in A Man And His Wife (1944) 73: You’d almost believe they think I’m off my block.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 199: He is – scatty, screwy [...] off his chump (head, nut, block).
1968		R.D. Magoffin We Bushies 54: You’re off y’block begorrah!

use one’s block (v.)

(N.Z.) to act sensibly.

1940		F. Sargeson ‘The Making of a New Zealander’ in A Man And His Wife (1944) 9: Use your block.
1956		T. Sutherland Green Kiwi 36: You want to use your block a bit sometimes.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 16/1: block phr. use your block advice to use your common sense.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. [as cit. 1988].

SE in slang uses

In compounds

blockhead/blockheaded

see separate entries.

block ornament (n.) [SE block ornament, a small piece of meat displayed on a butcher’s block]

an eccentric-looking person.

1881		Sheffield Dly Teleg. 19 Feb. 2/6: Mtr Waddy has been the ‘block ornament’ of strange constituencies, and been poked and turned, sniffed at and thrown down again by vulgar market people.
1889–90		Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1914		Laverton Mercury (WA) 31 Oct. 3/7: Odd little bets [i.e. bits] that are raked together, for instance, are ‘block-ornaments’.

In phrases

put the blocks to (v.) (also slip someone on the blocks)

1. (US) of a man, to have sexual intercourse with.

1918		W.J. Schira diary 15 Dec. 🌐 I guess Carter the guard put the blocks to Brownie [i.e. a nurse] about 2 o’clock this morning.
1922		R. McAlmon ‘Abrupt Decision’ in A Hasty Bunch 148: I’ll bet you let Bill O’Brien put the blocks to you.
1932		(con. 1910s) J.T. Farrell Young Lonigan in Studs Lonigan (1936) 64: The fat guy [...] who bragged that he had put the blocks to nearly every K.M. in the neighbourhood.
1949		H. Miller Sexus (1969) 113: If she could let me put the blocks to her.
1959		A. Zugsmith Beat Generation 43: Never before had he put the blocks to a fuzz’s hotsy.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 814: put the blocks to – To have intercourse.
1967		in E. Cray Erotic Muse (1992) 66: I slipped her on the blocks. / She said, ‘Young man, I’ve got the pox.’.
1974		C. Loken Come Monday Morning 67: When he first started puttin’ the blocks to ’er she was already out workin’.

2. see also under block n.⁶

up on (the) blocks [automobile imagery, i.e. ‘out of action’]

menstruating.

1999		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 98 Oct. 29: up on blocks adj. Of a woman. A monthly mott failure due to a recurring leak under the beetle bonnet.
2000		personal correspondence: up on blocks – having a period (menstruating). i.e. Out of action, a bit like a car in a garage. e.g. ‘I don’t think I’ll be in luck tonight lads, the missus is up on blocks.’.
2000		P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 78: She’s up on the blocks at the moment.
2001		P. Meditzy ‘A Day In The Life Of...’ 29 Apr. 🌐 Because she was ‘up on blocks’ (a leak from under the beetle bonnet) and my cock already looked like a ‘barbers pole’, I realised it was going to get messy.

block n.1

In derivatives

In compounds

In phrases

SE in slang uses

In compounds

In phrases

block n.¹