breeze block
- noun
- /briz blɑk/
- UK
:
bloque de hormigón ligero
- For the new garage, we chose breeze blocks because they are lightweight and easy to handle.
Examples
-
Most gave the appearance of being incomplete; walls of breeze block, window spaces unfilled, roofs of misshaped pieces of wood or corrugated iron.
Blog text (28) -
I should point out, though, that construction workers don't usually live in tents; their housing is more typically made of breeze block or, less commonly, timber prefab.
Blog text (15) -
They watched him installing breeze blocks at the foot of the tree, loop the rope over the branch, and secure the noose around his neck.
Fiction book (1996) -
The house was built with breeze blocks to ensure better insulation and durability.
-
The workers quickly assembled the structure using breeze blocks for the walls.
Synonyms
16
2.9
A hollow rectangular block of concrete used to build walls
2
2.8
A block of stone or concrete used to make walls
A light concrete block used for building, made from waste from burned coal instead of stone
How Strong
- Specialized
5
3.7
- Specialized
2
2.8
- UK
Surface Forms
Morphology
breeze + block
Although 'block' is transparent, the first constituent 'breeze' here does not mean the common wind sense a B1 learner would know; it historically refers to cinder/ash used in the block. Because the compound's meaning ('lightweight concrete/cinder block') relies on a specialized, dialectal sense of 'breeze' that is not inferable from the everyday word, a learner who only knows the usual meanings would not derive the correct sense.
Etymology
The noun breeze block probably comes from an old word breeze for small pieces of coal or ash used when making concrete. Because that material made the blocks lighter and cheaper, the name breeze block came to mean a 'lightweight concrete block' used in building.