[Common since c. 1500: of uncertain history. The Ger. equivalent blochhaus (‘einen steinen Blochhaus’) is quoted by Grimm 1557 and 1602; the Du. blokhuis is in Kilian 1599; Fr. blocus, generally considered to be the same word, and orig. in same sense, is quoted by Littré in the 16th c. (cf. BLOCCUZ). So far as evidence goes, the Eng. is thus the earliest; but we should expect it to be of Du. or Ger. origin. In any case the sense was not originally (as in modern notion) a house composed of blocks of wood, but one which blocks or obstructs a passage. The history and age of the Ger. blockhaus and F. blocus require more investigation.]
a. orig. A detached fort blocking or covering the access to a landing, a narrow channel, a mountain pass, a bridge, or other strategical point. b. In later use: An edifice of one or (formerly) more storeys, constructed chiefly of timber, loopholed and embrasured for firing.
1512. Act 4 Hen. VIII., i § 1. Nother pile blokhouse ne Bulwork is made to greve or annoye theym at theyr landyng.
1538. Leland, Itin., III. 21. There is a Blok House and a fair Pere in the Est side of the Peninsula.
1550. Lever, Serm., 94. Block houses and bulwarkes, made and kepte … for the saue garde of thys realm.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., III. 946/2. All the havens to be fensed with bulworks, and blockehouses.
1597. Gerard, Herbal, xli. § 4. 257. It … groweth by the blockhouse of Tilberie.
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 210. At the end of the peir stands a paltry blockhouse furnished with suitable artillery.
1712. Lond. Gaz., No. 5014/1. The Highway between Highgate Gatehouse … and Barnet Blockhouse.
1813. Wellington, Disp., X. 502. A strong stone block house which served as a head to the bridge.
1816. C. James, Mil. Dict., 54/1. Block-house … a kind of wooden fort or fortification, sometimes mounted on rollers, or on a flat-bottomed vessel, serving either on the lakes or rivers, or in counterscarps or counter-approaches.
1859. Turner, Dom. Archit., III. II. vii. 322. Calshot Castle is one of the block-houses erected by Henry VIII. to defend the coast.
1878. Black, Green Past., xliv. 356. A curious little inn which had originally been a blockhouse against the Indians.
c. slang. A prison.
[cf. 1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, III. xi. 85. To stop the disorders of our disorderly Theeues … built a Blockhouse.]
1796. Grose, Dict. Vulgar Tongue, Block Houses, prisons, houses of correction, &c.
d. A house of squared logs of timber.
1857. Penny Mag., VI. 437. Block-houses, which are built of blocks, or squared logs of timber.
1878. Lady Herbert, trans. Hübner’s Ramble, I. ii. 18. The Backwoodsman who begins by building a blockhouse.
2. transf. and fig.
1559. Mirr. Mag., Rudacke, i. 7. Bloudshead a blockehouse to beat away ill.
1615. Curry-c. for Cox-c., v. 230. The Scripture is a sufficient shelter against Atheisme, were the Blockhouses of your Miracles battered to the ground.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxix. 385. Flour, beans, and dried apples make a quadrangular blockhouse on the floe.
