cinder block
16
2.9
- noun
- /ˈsɪndər blɑk/
- US
:
bloque de hormigón
- Alex sits behind a table in the cinder block room painted police station green.
- cinder block wall
- cinder block building
- cinder block house
And one of the guys hit his head on the corner of a cinder block doorway and split his head wide open.
- And one of the guys hit his head on the corner of a cinder block doorway and split his head wide open.
- Now, there's a little* with a little, you know, fine print with cinder blocks and cinder blocks are really long lasting material as well.
Examples
-
Mason sat down in the weeds, his back against the cinder block, thinking.
Fiction book (1998) -
I laid masking tape along the floor to mark where the cinder-block walls would go.
Fiction book (1991) -
The cinder blocks are in.
-
I'm at a wall here, a cinder block wall... where you told me I have to go.
-
Leo and I stood outside the window on cinder blocks, watching.
Fiction book (1994) -
I got off the crate and made my way over to the damp cinder block wall.
Fiction book (1999) -
Others, constructed of modern cinder block, were in better condition, but they were hardly worth repairing.
Fiction book (1992) -
Sunlight slashes down into a cinder-block room, less than six feet wide but over twenty feet long.
Fiction book (1991) -
The diner was a cinder-block building with a beam ceiling laced with cobwebs.
Fiction book (1992) -
The new garage is built with cinder blocks to ensure durability and insulation.
Synonyms
440
1.0
A hard rectangular block of baked clay used to build walls or paths
340
1.0
A solid piece of material used for building or play
2
2.8
A block of stone or concrete used to make walls
1
4.8
Made from bricks of mud dried in the sun rather than baked
1
2.7
A brick made from wet earth that gets hard and is used to build walls
A light concrete block used for building, made from waste from burned coal instead of stone
A light concrete block that builders use to make walls and sheds
A type of brick made from sand and lime used for building
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is a direct, compositional combination of 'cinder' (small piece of coal/char) + 'block' (a solid unit) — i.e. a block made from cinders or lightweight concrete. This noun–noun compound follows a common, literal formation pattern and would be readily inferable by a B1 learner who knows both constituents.
Etymology
The noun cinder block comes from early building blocks made with coal cinders, the burned bits left from coal mixed into concrete. Because the dark cinders were inside each heavy square block, the name stuck and today cinder block means 'a cheap block used to build walls and buildings'.