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View synonyms for blockade

blockade

[ blo-keyd ]

noun

  1. the isolating, closing off, or surrounding of a place, as a port, harbor, or city, by hostile ships or troops to prevent entrance or exit.
  2. any obstruction of passage or progress:

    We had difficulty in getting through the blockade of bodyguards.

  3. Pathology. interruption or inhibition of a normal physiological signal, as a nerve impulse or a heart muscle–contraction impulse.


verb (used with object)

, block·ad·ed, block·ad·ing.
  1. to subject to a blockade.

blockade

/ blɒˈkeɪd /

noun

  1. military the interdiction of a nation's sea lines of communications, esp of an individual port by the use of sea power
  2. something that prevents access or progress
  3. med the inhibition of the effect of a hormone or a drug, a transport system, or the action of a nerve by a drug


verb

  1. to impose a blockade on
  2. to obstruct the way to

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Derived Forms

  • blockˈader, noun

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Other Words From

  • block·ader noun
  • counter·block·ade noun verb counterblockaded counterblockading
  • nonblock·aded adjective
  • preblock·ade noun verb (used with object) preblockaded preblockading
  • problock·ade adjective
  • unblock·aded adjective

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Word History and Origins

Origin of blockade1

1670–80; block (in the sense “to create obstacles”) + -ade 1

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Word History and Origins

Origin of blockade1

C17: from block + -ade , as in ambuscade

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Synonym Study

See siege.

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Example Sentences

Russian President Vladimir Putin pounced quickly Sunday, denouncing the economic blockade of the Donbas.

A blockade would have rapidly cut off Pakistan from oil supplies.

Few, if any, are from Gaza, partly because of the blockade and partly because Hamas has pushed gays even deeper into the closet.

At 23 years old he has lived under the blockade for almost a third of his life and he is fed up.

But Karim has been without work since Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007 and Israel imposed its seven-year blockade.

President Lincoln had declared a blockade of the Southern ports as soon as the war had started.

The tumbled masses of slate-stratum fallen over one another was a proof that the blockade had been recently made.

The sea trade of the country had been destroyed by the vigorous blockade which the Dutch ships of war maintained along the coast.

This outbreak led to a joint British and German blockade, which seriously hampered trade operations.

This paper blockade was the challenge which called forth the Berlin Decree from Napoleon.

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