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Blockade

 [blo-keyd]   Example Sentences Origin

block·ade

   [blo-keyd] noun, verb, -ad·ed, -ad·ing.
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)
4.
to subject to a blockade.

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Blockade is one of our favorite verbs.
So is subtilize. Does it mean:
to run away hurriedly; flee.
to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.
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Origin:
1670–80; block (v.) + -ade1

Related forms
block·ad·er, noun
coun·ter·block·ade, noun, verb, -ad·ed, -ad·ing.
non·block·ad·ed, adjective
pre·block·ade, noun, verb (used with object), -ad·ed, -ad·ing.
pro·block·ade, adjective
EXPAND
un·block·ad·ed, adjective
COLLAPSE

Synonyms
1. See siege.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To Blockade
Example Sentences
  • Keeping up a blockade is no justification for violence.
  • In this case the blockade is a so-called momentum barrier between two identical molecules experiencing mutual repulsion.
  • The best way to get around your company's web blockade is the run a true proxy server.
EXPAND
Collins
World English Dictionary
blockade (blɒˈkeɪd)
 
—n
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
 
—vb
4.  to impose a blockade on
5.  to obstruct the way to
 
[C17: from block + -ade, as in ambuscade]
 
block'ader
 
—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

blockade
mid-17c., from 'block- (v.) + -ade, false Fr. ending (the Fr. word is blocus, 18c. in this sense, which seems to be in part a back-formation from the verb bloquer and in part infl. by the M.Du. loan-word blokhuus "blockhouse"). The verb is recorded from c.1680.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

blockade block·ade (blŏ-kād')
n.

  1. Intravenous injection of large amounts of colloidal dyes in which the reaction of the reticuloendothelial cells to other influences is temporarily prevented.

  2. Arrest of nerve impulse transmission at autonomic synaptic junctions, autonomic receptor sites, or myoneural junctions through the action of a drug.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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