breeze-block

See also: breezeblock

English

Etymology 1

From breeze (“residue from a furnace”) +‎ block.

Alternative forms

• breeze block, breezeblock, brieze block

Noun

breeze-block (plural breeze-blocks)

1. (UK) A lightweight building block made from cinders and concrete.

Synonyms

• cinder block
• clinker block
• hollow block

Translations

concrete building block

• Esperanto: betonbloko
• Finnish: rakennusharkko, harkko (fi)
• French: parpaing (fr) m, bloc de béton (fr) m
• German: Hohlblockstein (de) m, Schalstein m
• Korean: 콘크리트 블록 (konkeuriteu beullok)
• Russian: шлакобето́нный блок m (šlakobetónnyj blok), шлакобло́к (ru) m (šlakoblók)
• Welsh: brisbloc m

Etymology 2

Breeze blocks on a building in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong.

From breeze (“light, gentle wind”) +‎ block.

Alternative forms

• breeze block, breezeblock

Noun

breeze-block (plural breeze-blocks)

1. A type of perforated building block used for ventilation and letting natural light in.
   • 2016 March 12, Jenny Brown, “Perth's concrete house reinvents the front porch”, in Domain‎^[1], Sidney, archived from the original on 2016-03-12:

     Featuring, as the title “Concrete House” suggests, a main theme of concrete and perforated breeze blocks so evocative of the ’70s, it was cited in several categories of the Think Brick Awards and named project of the year in the Housing Industry Association’s Perth Innovation Housing Awards.

   • 2023, Patricia Callan, “House Gezelling”, in The New Modernist House: Mid-century Homes Renewed for Contemporary Living, Melbourne: Thames & Hudson Australia, →ISBN, page 269:

     A triangular breeze block is introduced to create screening walls, forming the new entry pathway.

   • 2024 April 2, Timothy A. Schuler, “Why Honolulu Is Primed for a Breezeblock Comeback”, in FLUX Hawaii‎^[2], Honolulu, archived from the original on 2024-04-02:

     Unlike some building technologies, breezeblock doesn’t have one single “inventor.” Rather, the idea of decorative concrete blocks seems to have emerged in multiple corners of the world in the late 1910s and early 1920s, simultaneously appearing in buildings in Brazil, France, and California.

Translations

perforated building block

• Portuguese: cobogó m (Brazil)

Further reading

• “breeze-block”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “breeze-block”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “breeze-block”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.