Oxford Business English Dictionary for Learners of English

see also: building blocks, office block

| 51 blowout

blockade /blD'keid; AmE bla:'k-/ noun, verb

noun [C]

an organized action to stop people or goods from leaving or entering a particular place, often as a form of protest: Truck drivers have begun a blockade of oil depots to protest against high fuel prices.

to impose/lift a blockade

a barrier that stops people or vehicles entering or leaving a place

verb [+ obj]

to physically stop people or goods from leaving or entering a particular place, often as a form of protest: Farmers have threatened to blockade the supermarket's distribution centres.

blockbuster /'blDkbASta(r); AmE 'bla:k-/ noun [C] (Marketing) something that has great financial success, especially a successful book, film/movie or medicine: Amgen's blockbuster drug, Epogen о The company relies too heavily on a single blockbuster product. ► 'blockbusting adjective [only before noun]: a blockbusting arthritis drug о a blockbusting $38 million deal

'block .diagram noun [c] a drawing that shows how the different parts of a machine, a system or a process are linked. The parts are shown as squares, or similar shapes, with labels.

'blocking mi.nority (also blocking stake,

noun [C]

a large number of shares in a company that give their owner the power to stop other companies from buying or controlling the company controlling interest

.block in surance noun [u] (BrE) a type of insurance that a company or an organization buys for all its employees or members: The university has negotiated a block insurance policy to cover students'personal possessions. blanket (2)

.block release noun [u] (HR) in the UK, a way of studying or receiving training at a college, etc. while you are working in a job, that involves attending regular short courses: a four-week period of block release о The course can be studied on a block-release basis. day release

.block 'vote noun [c] in the UK, a voting system in which each person who votes represents the members of their organization; the votes themselves: the power of union leaders with hundreds of thousands of block votes

bloodletting /'blAdletirj/ noun [u]

(usually used in newspapers) a situation where a company removes lots of employees from their jobs because of serious financial problems: In the first round of bloodletting, 17000 will lose their jobs.

(usually used in newspapers) a situation where the prices of shares on the stock exchange decrease by a large amount: The bloodletting on Wall Street continues as investors rush to sell their stocks.

blow /blau; AmE blou/ verb (blew /blu:/ blown /blaun; AwEbloun/)

СПИ blow the whistle (on sb/sth) (informal) to try to stop sth wrong or illegal that sb is doing by telling sb in authority about it: The auditors have a duty to blow the whistle on their clients. whistle-blower

blowout /'blauaut; AmE 'blou-/ noun, adjective (especially AmE) (informal)

noun [C, usually sing.]

1 a period of great economic difficulty; a sudden

Bine Book 52

ctecr-easg in value:ia stock-market blowout

meltdown

(Stock Exchange) a situation when new shares that are being offered are all sold very quickly and the price is high

a sudden large increase: The government has blamed poor economic conditions for the deficit blowout.

adjective [only before noun]

very successful and making a large profit; very large: The company expects a blowout fourth quarter, о a blowout end-of-year sale

'Blue Book noun [sing.] (Economics) a report on the economic state of the UK that is published every year