blockage

noun

Etymology: Etymology tree English block Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂tos Proto-Italic *-ātos Latin -ātus Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icus Latin -āticus Latin -āticum Old French -agebor. Middle English -age English -age English blockage From block + -age.

1. The state or condition of being blocked.

   “Only when one has seen a Control Office at first-hand does one realise the vast amount of unsparing but largely unsung work that is behind the eventual publication, perhaps, of a paragraph in this journal's "Motive Power Miscellany" recording the appearance, within hours of the complete blockage of a main line, of many of its trains, passenger and freight, on routes quite foreign to them; and of effective emergency services either side of the disaster area.”

2. The thing that is the cause of such a state, blocking a passage.

   “There was a blockage in the sewer, so we called out the plumber.”

3. Occlusion of a lumen (especially that of a blood vessel or intestine), or the thing that is causing it; as:

   “Blockage of circulation quickly leads to ischemia.”

   “In selected cases, endovascular thrombectomy can quickly remove a blockage that pharmaceutical thrombolysis can't budge.”

4. Occlusion of a lumen (especially that of a blood vessel or intestine), or the thing that is causing it; as: