‖ en bloc, advb. phr.
(ɑ̃ blɒk)
[Fr.]
In a block, as a whole. Also attrib.
| 1861 J. S. Mill Repr. Govt. xvii. 312 The amount assigned to each being levied by the local assembly..and paid en bloc into the national treasury. 1878 L. W. M. Lockhart Mine is Thine I. xii. 241 You judge all your old friends, en bloc, simply from your own point of view. 1888 Contemp. Rev. Jan. 81 We are bound to take Nature en bloc, with all her laws and all her cruelties, as well as her beneficences. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 11 July 2/2 We agree, prima facie, that there is every kind of objection to en bloc disfranchisements. 1905 Spectator 28 Jan. 111/1 He was all but ready to..accept the tenets of the elder Church en bloc. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 17 Nov. 5/3 This machine is the new 1909 model, the en bloc engine, four-speed gear-box, and thermo-syphon cooling denoting the only departure from standard practice. 1930 G. R. de Beer Embryol. & Evol. i. 10 It is not the ‘stage’ which is shifted en bloc, but certain characters which may be peculiar to that stage. 1934 Discovery June 174/1 Nearby..are villages whose inhabitants in summer migrate en bloc,..to the islands off the coast where they spend their time fishing. 1966 English Studies XLVII. 65 A mere en bloc rendering of the phrase obscures an image. |