Word.ws English Dictionary

blocking and tackling

blocking and tackling noun: basic tasks or skills in an undertaking or occupation.

Noun

blocking and tackling (uncountable)

  1. (US, idiomatic) Basic tasks or skills in an undertaking or occupation.
    • Some are caught up in the vision. Others are turned off and say he's a self-promoter who doesn't know anything about the blocking and tackling of the brokerage business.1999 March 16, Saul Hansell, “THE MARKETS: Market Place -- Trading on E*Trade's Success; Chief Has Aggressive Plans to Expand Internet Broker”, in New York Times
    • Cummings has been instrumental in the design of a computer simulation that he says will teach "the basic blocking and tackling of urban warfare.2002 November 16, Ron Martz, “U.S. soldiers train for urban warfare; 'A knife fight in a phone booth,' is what troops liken it to. U.S. forces are preparing.”, in Atlanta Journal Constitution

Origin of blocking and tackling

From US football.

Questions about blocking and tackling

What does blocking and tackling mean?
Blocking and tackling means basic tasks or skills in an undertaking or occupation.
What part of speech is blocking and tackling?
Blocking and tackling is a noun.

Words near blocking and tackling in the dictionary

  1. blockier
  2. blockiest
  3. blockily
  4. blockiness
  5. blocking
  6. blocking and tackling
  7. blocking back
  8. blocking backs
  9. blocking bet
  10. blocking bets
  11. blocking course

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blocking and tackling (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: en-au-blocking and tackling.ogg.

Cite this entry: “blocking and tackling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blocking_and_tackling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.