[f. BLOCK sb.] † a. A book of wooden tablets. Obs. b. A book printed from engraved wooden blocks.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Book, Block Books … those written on wooden planks or tablets, smoothed for that purpose with an ascia, and a plane.
1816. Singer, Hist. Cards, 109. These Block books excited the idea of the invention of moveable characters.
1859. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 8), XVIII. 522. The design and execution are very superior to those of the St. Christopher and the block-books.
