Blocked

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Pronunciation: /blɑkt/

Definitions

1. Prevented from progressing or accessing an area due to an obstruction; interrupted in the flow of communication or operation; rendered inoperative because of a physical or figurative barrier
2. Stopped or hindered from moving through an area or pathway due to an obstacle ; having a flow of information or activity cut off or disrupted ; made nonfunctional by some form of impediment or barrier
3. Unable to continue forward because something is physically in the way ; experiencing a break or stoppage in transmission or operation ; caused to be ineffective or disabled by a blockage

Etymology: "Blocked" is the past form of "block", and the verb's story starts with a solid lump of wood. Its ancestor was a log or thick plank, a piece of timber that is hard to shift. Middle English had "blok" meaning a log, stump or solid piece, borrowed through Old French "bloc" from Middle Dutch "blok", which meant a treetrunk. The same root gave Old English "bolca", a plank forming a ship's gangway, and Old Norse "bǫlkr", a partition or divider. That history explains the modern sense. A heavy beam lying across a passage physically stops anyone passing, and the verb grew from that image of an immovable obstacle. Something "blocked" is still something that a solid object has got in the way of.

Synonyms: obstructed, impeded, barred, hindered, stopped

Antonyms: unblocked, opened, cleared, allowed, enabled