Word.ws English Dictionary

block-book

/ˌblɒkˈbʊk/US/ˌblɑkˈbʊk/

block-book verb: to book (“reserve in advance”) a large number of (hotel rooms, tickets, or other items) at one time.

Verb

block-book (third-person singular simple present block-books, present participle block-booking, simple past and past participle block-booked)

  1. (transitive) To book (“reserve in advance”) a large number of (hotel rooms, tickets, or other items) at one time.
    • We’ve block-booked three rows of seats at the theatre.
    • [I]f block booking were truly efficient, some paying patients would choose to patronize doctors who block booked, putting up with extra long waits to save a little money (i.e., choosing to pay $30 for a block-booked visit rather than $35 for care by appointment). The fact that doctors cannot...2004, Thomas E. Getzen, “Management and Regulation of Hospital Costs”, in Health Economics: Fundamentals and Flow of Funds, New York, N.Y.: John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 182

Examples of block-book in a sentence

  • They were block-booked for six months at the Vineyard Hills Inn.2005, Dean Koontz, chapter 69, in Velocity, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 299:
  • Therefore, VYP often block-books a studio for several days at a time, or even for 2 weeks at a time.2011 June, “V and Y Productions: Some Help from BPP”, in CIMA Professional Competence Level Paper T4: Test of Professional Competence in...
  • "NR seems to struggle in terms of managing its customer base – Bombardier and Alstom block-book the place.2021 June 16, Andrew Mourant, “Plans for New Test Centre Remain on Track”, in Rail, number 933, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire: Bauer Media...

Forms of block-book

third-person singular presentblock-books
present participleblock-booking
past participleblock-booked
pastblock-booked

Origin of block-book

From block (“apportionment or grouping of like things treated together as a unit”, noun) + book (verb), a back-formation from block booking.

Questions about block-book

What does block-book mean?
Block-book means to book (“reserve in advance”) a large number of (hotel rooms, tickets, or other items) at one time.
How do you use block-book in a sentence?
They were block-booked for six months at the Vineyard Hills Inn.
What part of speech is block-book?
Block-book is a verb.
How do you pronounce block-book?
Block-book is pronounced /ˌblɒkˈbʊk/ (UK).
What is the past tense of block-book?
The past tense of block-book is block-booked.

Words near block-book in the dictionary

  1. block vomity
  2. block vote
  3. block votes
  4. block wall
  5. block walls
  6. block-book
  7. block-booked
  8. block-booking
  9. block-books
  10. block-head
  11. block-heads

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: block-book (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-block-book.wav.

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