block ornament

Noun

block ornament (plural block ornaments)

1. (Australia, UK, obsolete, slang) A small fragment of cheap meat offered for sale by a butcher, particularly one of poor quality.
   • I ought to add, that the “single fellows,” instead of living on “block ornaments” and the like, live, when doing well, on the best fare, at the “spiciest” cook-shops on their rounds, or in the neighbourhood of their residence.1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861
   • It is certain that in the Chinese meat stores you see a number of scraps of meat of the "block ornament" order, the dubious hue of which–usually a dingy greyish purple, with streaks of drab fat–[…]1885, George Augustus Sala, America Revisited, Vizetelly & Company, page 501
2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see block, ornament.
   • a presents the elevation, b the section to the block ornament to A, and c shows a vertical section of the block ornament to B[…]1833, Asher Benjamin, Practice of Architecture, →ISBN, page 92
   • The wall plate is finely moulded, and the wooden columns supporting the principals have a curious diamond block ornament.1852, Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, page 171