blocking

/blɑkɪŋ/

Other forms: blockings

When you obstruct someone from seeing or doing something, that's blocking. In most sports, blocking your opponent is a huge part of playing the game.

Blocking the player who's trying to make a basket is one kind of blocking. There's also blocking a street for the neighborhood block party, or blocking your ex-friend on social media. In each case, you're cutting off access in some way. In theater, the word takes on a different meaning, "the staging of actors." This use stems from the 19th-century theater, when directors would frequently use wooden blocks to plan out the actors' positions on a miniature stage.

Definitions of blocking

1. noun

   the act of obstructing or deflecting someone's movements
   synonyms: block

   types:

   interference

   (American football) blocking a player's path with your body

   trap block

   (American football) an illegal block

   parry

   (fencing) blocking a lunge or deflecting it with a circular motion of the sword

   type of:

   obstruction

   getting in someone's way
2. noun

   the precise staging of performers’ positions and movements