What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Block vs Clay - What's the difference?

block | clay |

As a noun block

is bloc.

As a proper noun clay is

.

block

English

(wikipedia block)

Noun

(en noun)
  • A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.
  • *
    • You young porkers who are sitting in front of me, every one of you will scream your lives out at the block within a year.
    A block of ice.
    A block of stone.
    Anne Boleyn placed her head on the block and awaited her execution.
  • A group of urban lots of property, several acres in extent, not crossed by public streets.
    • I'm going for a walk around the block .
  • A residential building consisting of flats.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
    • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=He turned back to the scene before him and the enormous new block' of council dwellings. The design was some way after Corbusier but the ' block was built up on plinths and resembled an Atlantic liner swimming diagonally across the site.}}
    A block of flats.
  • The distance from one street to another in a city that is built (approximately) to a grid pattern.
    • The place you are looking for is two long blocks''' east and one short '''block north.
  • (slang) The human head.
    • I'll knock your block off.
  • A wig block: a simplified head model upon which wigs are worn.
  • * 1851 , (Herman Melville), (Moby Dick) ,
    • Next morning, Monday, after disposing of the embalmed head to a barber, for a block , I settled my own and comrade’s bill; using, however, my comrade’s money.
  • A mould on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.
  • * Shakespeare
    • He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block .
  • A set of sheets (of paper) joined together at one end.
    • A block of 100 tickets.
  • (computing) A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see cluster).
  • (computing) A region of code in a program that acts as a single unit, such as a function or loop.
  • (cryptography) A fixed-length group of bits making up part of a message.
  • (rigging) A case with one or more sheaves/pulleys, used with ropes to increase or redirect force, for example, as part of the rigging of a sailing ship.
  • (chemistry) A portion of a macromolecule, comprising many units, that has at least one feature not present in adjacent portions.
  • Something that prevents something from passing (see blockage).
    • There's a block in the pipe that means the water can't get through.
  • (sports) An action to interfere with the movement of an opposing player or of the object of play (ball, puck).
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
    • , date=February 12 , author=Oliver Brett , title=Sunderland 1–2 Tottenham , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=The match proved an unedifying spectacle until Spurs won a corner following their first move of real quality, John Mensah making an important block with Jermain Defoe poised to strike. }}
  • (cricket) A shot played by holding the bat vertically in the path of the ball, so that it loses momentum and drops to the ground.
  • (volleyball) A defensive play by one or more players meant to deflect a spiked ball back to the hitter’s court.
  • (philately) A joined group of four (or in some cases nine) postage stamps, forming a roughly square shape.
  • A section of split logs used as fuel.
  • (UK) Solitary confinement.
  • A cellblock.
  • (falconry) The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.
  • (printing, dated) A piece of hard wood on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted.
  • (obsolete) A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt.
  • * Shakespeare
    • What a block art thou!
  • A section of a railroad where the block system is used.

    • Synonyms

    * See also * city block

    Related terms

    *

    Derived terms

    ; cuboid * * * * ; group of buildings * * * * * ; computing * ; distance * ; cutting base * * ; prevent passage * * * * * * ; rigging * * ; human head * * * ; volleyball * * * ; miscellaneous * * * * *

    Synonyms

    * (volleyball) stuff, roof, wall

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fill (something) so that it is not possible to pass.
    • The pipe is blocked .
  • To prevent (something or someone) from passing.
    • You're blocking the road – I can't get through.
  • To prevent (something from happening or someone from doing something).
    • His plan to take over the business was blocked by the boss.
  • (sports) To impede an opponent.
    • He blocked the basketball player's shot.
    The offensive linemen tried to block the blitz.
  • (theater) To specify the positions and movements of the actors.
    • It was very difficult to block this scene convincingly.
  • (cricket) To hit with a block.
  • (cricket) To play a block shot.
  • To disable communication via telephone, instant messaging, etc., with an undesirable someone.
    • I tried to send you a message, but you've blocked me!
  • (computing) To wait.
    • When the condition expression is false, the thread blocks on the condition variable.
  • To stretch or mould (a knitted item, a hat, etc.) into the desired shape.
    • I blocked the mittens by wetting them and pinning them to a shaped piece of cardboard.

    Related terms

    * * * * * * *

    clay

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A mineral substance made up of small crystals of silica and alumina, that is ductile when moist; the material of pre-fired ceramics.
  • *
  • *:Three chairs of the steamer type, all maimed, comprised the furniture of this roof-garden, with (by way of local colour) on one of the copings a row of four red clay flower-pots filled with sun-baked dust.
  • An earth material with ductile qualities.
  • (lb) A tennis court surface.
  • :
  • (lb) The material of the human body.
  • *1611 , Old Testament , King James Version, (w) 10:8-9:
    • Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about...thou hast made me as the clay .
  • *1611 , Old Testament , King James Version, (w) 64:8:
  • *:But now, O Lord, thou art our Father; we are the clay , and thou art our potter; and we are the work of thy hand.
  • (lb) A particle less than 3.9 microns in diameter, following the Wentworth scale.
  • A clay pigeon.

    • Antonyms

    * (material of the human body) soul, spirit

    Hyponyms

    * kaolin, kaoline * ball clay * fire clay * potter's clay

    Derived terms

    * ball clay * claying * clayen * clayey * claymation * clay pigeon * fire clay * modelling clay * potter's clay

    See also

    * alluvium

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To add clay to, to spread clay onto.
  • (of sugar) To purify using clay.
  • * 1776 , , Book IV, Chapter 7: Of Colonies, Part 2: Causes of Prosperity of New Colonies,
    • They amounted, therefore, to a prohibition, at first of claying' or refining sugar for any foreign market, and at present of ' claying or refining it for the market, which takes off, perhaps, more than nine-tenths of the whole produce.
  • * 1809', Jonathan Williams, '' On the Process of '''Claying Sugar'', in ''Transactions of the American Philosophical Society , Volume 6.
  • * 1985 , Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550-1835 , page 200,
    • The Portuguese had mastered the technique of claying sugar, and other European nations tried to learn the secrets from them.

    References

    * Krueger, Dennis (December 1982). "Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?" Studio Potter Vol. 11, Number 1.[http://www.studiopotter.org/articles/?art=art0001] (etymology) * * Clay , New Webster Dictionary of English Language, 1980 edition.

    Anagrams

    *