Monday, November 11, 2013

en bloc

en bloc \ahn BLAWK; English. en BLOK\, adverb:

French. as a whole.

These houses had recently been bought en bloc by a property developer who was about to have them renovated.
-- Ruth Rendell, End in Tears, 2005
Mr Gates, after a pause, agreed to act as chairman temporarily, and Anton sat down, with a look of satisfaction which explained to Martha that she had under-estimated the danger of the entire body of respectable patrons resigning en bloc.
-- Doris Lessing, A Ripple From the Storm, 1958

En bloc entered English in the mid-1800s directly from the French phrase of the same spelling and meaning.

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