different between check vs block

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: ch?k, IPA^(key): /t???k/
• Rhymes: -?k
• Homophones: cheque, Czech

Etymology 1

From Middle English chek, chekke, borrowed from Old French eschek, eschec, eschac, from Medieval Latin scaccus, borrowed from Arabic ????? (š?h, “king or check at chess, shah”), borrowed from Persian ???? (šâh, “king”), from Middle Persian ????????????????? (mlk? /š?h/), from Old Persian ???? (XŠ /xš?ya?iya/, “king”), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *kšáyati (“he rules, he has power over”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tek- (“to gain power over, gain control over”).

All English senses developed from the chess sense. Compare Saterland Frisian Schak, Schach, Dutch schaak, German Schach, Danish skak, Swedish schack, Icelandic skák, French échec, Italian scacco. See chess and shah (“king of Persia or Iran”).

Noun

check (plural checks)

1. (chess) A situation in which the king is directly threatened by an opposing piece. [from 14th c.]
2. An inspection or examination.

3. A control; a limit or stop.
4. (US) A mark (especially a checkmark: ?) used as an indicator.

   Synonyms: (UK) tick, checkmark

   • 1980, Stephen King, The Mist

     Norton had made a neat, lawyerly check beside each of the items he and Billy had picked up—half a dozen or so, including the milk and a six-pack of Coke.

5. (US) An order to a bank to pay money to a named person or entity.

   Synonym: (UK, Canada) cheque

6. (US) A bill, particularly in a restaurant.

   Synonyms: bill, (Canada) cheque

7. (contact sports) A maneuver performed by a player to take another player out of the play.

8. A token used instead of cash in gaming machines, or in gambling generally.
   • 1963, American law reports annotated: second series, volume 89

     […] the statute prohibits a machine which dispenses checks or tokens for replay […]

9. A lengthwise separation through the growth rings in wood.
10. A mark, certificate, or token by which errors may be prevented, or a thing or person may be identified.

11. (falconry) The forsaking by a hawk of its proper game to follow other birds. [from 15th c.]
12. A small chink or crack.

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Translations

References

• check on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From Middle English chekken, partly from Old French eschequier and partly from the noun (see above).

Verb

check (third-person singular simple present checks, present participle checking, simple past and past participle checked)

1. To inspect; to examine.

2. To verify the accuracy of a text or translation, usually making some corrections (proofread) or many (copyedit).
3. (US, often used with "off") To mark items on a list (with a checkmark or by crossing them out) that have been chosen for keeping or removal or that have been dealt with (for example, completed or verified as correct or satisfactory).

   Synonyms: check off, (UK) tick, (UK) tick off, cross off, strike off

   Antonym: uncheck

4. To control, limit, or halt.

   Synonyms: curtail, restrain; see also Thesaurus:curb

   • c. 1775–1780, Edmund Burke, letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol

     so many clogs to check and retard the headlong course of violence and oppression

   • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Chapter 13

     She was about to retort but something checked the words on her tongue.

5. To verify or compare with a source of information.

6. To leave in safekeeping.

7. To leave with a shipping agent for shipping.

8. (street basketball) To pass or bounce the ball to an opponent from behind the three-point line and have the opponent pass or bounce it back to start play.

9. (sports) To disrupt another player with the stick or body to obtain possession of the ball or puck.

   Synonyms: tackle, trap, attack

10. (poker) To remain in a hand without betting. Only legal if no one has yet bet.

11. (chess) To make a move which puts an adversary's king in check; to put in check.
12. To chide, rebuke, or reprove.
13. (nautical) To slack or ease off, as a brace which is too stiffly extended.
14. To crack or gape open, as wood in drying; or to crack in small checks, as varnish, paint, etc.
15. To make checks or chinks in; to cause to crack.

16. To make a stop; to pause; with at.

    • The mind, once jaded by an attempt above its power, either is disabled for the future, or else checks at any vigorous undertaking ever after.

17. (obsolete) To clash or interfere.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Francis Bacon to this entry?)

18. To act as a curb or restraint.
    • 1677, John Dryden, All for Love

      It [his presence] checks too strong upon me.

19. (falconry) To turn, when in pursuit of proper game, and fly after other birds.

Derived terms

• See below

Descendants

• ? Gulf Arabic: ???? (??yy?k)
• ? Hijazi Arabic: ??????? (šayyak)
• ? Finnish: tsekata
• ? German: checken
• ? Portuguese: checar
• ? Russian: ??????? (?ékat?)
• ? Russian: ???????? (?éknut?)
• ? Russian: ?????????? (pro?ékat?)
• ? Spanish: chequear

Translations

Derived terms

Related terms

Etymology 3

By shortening from chequer, from Old French eschequier (“chessboard”), from Medieval Latin scaccarium, ultimately from the same Persian root as above.

Noun

check (plural checks)

1. (textiles, usually pluralized) A pattern made up of a grid of squares of alternating colors; a checkered pattern.
   • 1819, Charles Mowry, in the Downington Pennsylvania American Republican, quoted in Herbery Wisbey, Pioneer Prophetess: Jemima Wilkinson, the Publick Universal Friend:

     One of her female followers, had made a very elegant piece of check. The Friend, being at her house, on a visit, the lady shewed the check to her, and as evidence of devotion to her leader, proposed presenting her with a pattern off the piece for her own use.

2. Any fabric woven with such a pattern.

Translations

Verb

check (third-person singular simple present checks, present participle checking, simple past and past participle checked)

1. (transitive) To mark with a check pattern.

Adjective

check (not comparable)

1. (heraldry) Divided into small squares by transverse, perpendicular, and horizontal lines.

   Synonym: chequy

References

• Michael Quinion (2004) , “Cheque”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, ?ISBN
• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “check”, in Online Etymology Dictionary

Chinese

Etymology

Borrowed from English check.

Pronunciation

Verb

check

1. (Cantonese) to check

Synonyms

• ????? (ji?nchá)

Danish

Etymology

From English cheque, check, from Old French eschek (“check (in chess)”), via Medieval Latin scaccus and Arabic ????? (š?h) from Persian ???? (šâh, “king”) (cf. also Danish skak).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?????]

Noun

check c

1. cheque

Inflection

Dutch

Pronunciation

Verb

check

1. first-person singular present indicative of checken
2. imperative of checken

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t??k/

Noun

check m (plural checks)

1. (slang) fist bump

Spanish

Noun

check m (plural checks)

1. check (mark)

Swedish

Etymology

From English check

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??k?/
• Homophones: käck, tjeck

Noun

check c

1. cheque, check

Declension

References

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /bl?k/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /bl?k/
• Rhymes: -?k
• Homophone: bloc

Etymology 1

From Middle English blok (“log, stump, solid piece”), from Old French bloc (“log, block”), from Middle Dutch blok (“treetrunk”), from Old Dutch *blok (“log”), from Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukk? (“beam, log”), from Proto-Indo-European *b?el?- (“thick plank, beam, pile, prop”). Cognate with Old Frisian blok, Old Saxon blok, Old High German bloh, bloc (“block”), Old English bolca (“gangway of a ship, plank”), Old Norse b?lkr (“divider, partition”). More at balk. See also bloc.

Noun

block (plural blocks)

1. A substantial, often approximately cuboid, piece of any substance.

   a block of ice, a block of stone

   1. A chopping block: a cuboid base for cutting or beheading.

      Anne Boleyn placed her head on the block and awaited her execution.

      • 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.

   2. A wig block: a simplified head model upon which wigs are worn.
      • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 13

        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.

   3. A mould on which hats, bonnets, etc., are shaped.
   4. (printing, dated) A piece of hard wood on which a stereotype or electrotype plate is mounted.
   5. A case or frame housing one or more sheaves (pulleys), used with ropes to increase or redirect force, for example as part of lifting gear or a sailing ship's rigging. See also block and tackle.
   6. A section of split logs used as fuel.
      • 1833, The Gospel Anchor (volume 2, page 371)

        She said, 'I hope I shall not be left to kill myself, but It would be no more sin to kill me, than to put a block on the fire.'

      • 2012, Ron Herrett, Shorty's Story

        Dawn and Shorty would cut this tree into blocks, while Randy and Matt went back for more. Dawn and Shorty made a good team on the crosscut, so when another log arrived, the first was almost completely made into shake wood.

   7. A set of sheets (of paper) joined together at one end, forming a cuboid shape.

      a block of 100 tickets

   8. (falconry) The perch on which a bird of prey is kept.
2. A physical area or extent of something, often rectangular or approximately rectangular.

   a block of text, a block of colour, a block of land

   1. (philately) A joined group of four (or in some cases nine) postage stamps, forming a roughly square shape.
   2. (viticulture) A discrete group of vines in a vineyard, often distinguished from others by variety, clone, canopy training method, irrigation infrastructure, or some combination thereof.
3. A logical extent or region; a grouping or apportionment of like things treated together as a unit.

   a block of data, a block of seven days, a block reservation

   1. (computing) A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see cluster).
   2. (programming) A region of code in a program that acts as a single unit, such as a function or loop.
   3. (cryptography) A fixed-length group of bits making up part of a message.
   4. (chemistry) A portion of a macromolecule, comprising many units, that has at least one feature not present in adjacent portions.
   5. (rail transport) A section of a railroad where the block system is used.
   6. (computing) A contiguous range of Unicode code points used to encode characters of a specific type; can be of any size evenly divisible by 16, up to 65,536 (a full plane).

4. A contiguous group of urban lots of property, typically several acres in extent, not crossed by public streets.

   I'm going for a walk around the block.

   1. The distance from one street to another in a city or suburb that is built (approximately) to a grid pattern.

      The place you are looking for is two long blocks east and one short block north.
5. A large, roughly cuboid building.

   a block of flats, an office block, a tower block

   1. A cellblock.
6. Something that prevents something from passing.

   Synonyms: barrier, blockage, obstruction

   There's a block in the pipe that means the water can't get through.

   1. Interference or obstruction of cognitive processes.

      a mental block

      writer's block

   2. (sports) An action to interfere with the movement of an opposing player or of the object of play (ball, puck).
      1. (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.
      2. (cricket) The position of a player or bat when guarding the wicket.
      3. (cricket) A blockhole.
      4. (cricket) The popping crease.
      5. (volleyball) A defensive play by one or more players meant to deflect a spiked ball back to the hitter’s court.

      Synonyms: stuff, roof, wall

   3. (Wiktionary and WMF jargon) A type of temporary or permanent ban which automatically prevents the blocked user from editing pages of a particular wiki.

7. (slang) The human head.

   I'll knock your block off!

8. (Britain) Solitary confinement.
9. (obsolete) A blockhead; a stupid fellow; a dolt.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:head
• city block

Related terms

• bloc

Derived terms

Descendants

Translations

Verb

block (third-person singular simple present blocks, present participle blocking, simple past and past participle blocked)

1. (transitive) To fill or obstruct (something) so that it is not possible to pass.

   The pipe is blocked.
2. (transitive) To prevent (something or someone) from passing.

   A broken-down car is blocking the traffic.

3. (transitive) To prevent (something from happening or someone from doing something).

   His plan to take over the business was blocked by the boss.

4. (transitive, sports) To impede (an opponent or opponent's play).

   He blocked the basketball player's shot.

   The offensive linemen tried to block the blitz.

5. (transitive, theater) To specify the positions and movements of the actors for (a section of a play).

   It was very difficult to block this scene convincingly.

6. (transitive, cricket) To hit with a block.
7. (intransitive, cricket) To play a block shot.
8. (transitive) To disable communication via telephone, instant messaging, etc. with (someone undesirable).

   I tried to send you a message, but you've blocked me!

9. (Wiktionary and WMF jargon, transitive) To place, on a user of a wiki, a type of temporary or permanent ban which automatically prevents the recipient from editing pages of the wiki.

10. (computing, intransitive) To wait.

    When the condition expression is false, the thread blocks on the condition variable.

11. (transitive) 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.

12. (transitive) To shape or sketch out roughly.

    When drawing a scene, first block the main features, and then fill in the detail.

13. (transitive, slang, obsolete) To knock (a person's hat) down over their eyes.

    Synonym: bonnet

Related terms

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

block

1. Misspelling of bloc.

Manx

Etymology

Borrowed from English block.

Noun

block m (genitive singular bluick)

1. block, log, cake (of soap)

Derived terms

• block-lettyr

Mutation

Spanish

Etymology

From English block. Doublet of bloc and bloque.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?blok/, [?blok]

Noun

block m (plural blocks)

1. (Guatemala) cement block

   Synonym: bloque de cemento

Swedish

Etymology

From Middle Low German block, from Old Saxon blok, from Proto-West Germanic *blokk, from Proto-Germanic *blukk?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bl?k/

Noun

block n

1. a block, a boulder, a cuboid (of ice, wood, rock)
2. a block, a pad, a notebook
3. a block, a pulley
4. a block, a piece of data storage
5. a bloc (of voters or countries)

Declension

Related terms

• anteckningsblock
• blädderblock
• blockad
• blockbaserad
• blockera
• blockstorlek
• diskblock
• flyttblock
• isblock
• skrivblock
• stenblock