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bloke

noun
/bləʊk/UK/bloʊk/US

Etymology

Origin unknown; the following borrowings have been hypothesized: * From a modern Celtic language, such as Irish bloc (“block”) or Scottish Gaelic ploc (“large, stubborn person”, literally “block of wood”), themselves borrowings from English block * From Hindustani لوک (lok) / लोक (lok, “people, folk”) or Shelta loke (“man”).

  1. borrowed from loke — “man”
  2. derived from block
  3. borrowed from ploc — “large, stubborn person”
  4. borrowed from bloc — “block”

Definitions

  1. A fellow, a man

    A fellow, a man; especially an ordinary man, a man on the street.

    • Now I tell yer straight, I don't call it square for two big bloaks like us to tackle [i.e., steal from] one poor woman, and she a widder, and p'raps as 'ard up as us; it isn't English.

  2. An exemplar of a certain masculine, independent male archetype.

  3. A man who behaves in a particularly laddish or overtly heterosexual manner.

    • Even now he's like this weird guy who comes into my life occasionally and asks me bloke questions. Sport, girls, your future. Even superannuation. Once he even started telling me how important superannuation was. What a dickhead.
    • [H]e is a ‘blokes bloke’. A proper bloke, rather than something feminine or obviously dysfunctional.
  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. (A lower deck term for) the captain or executive officer of a warship, especially one…

      (A lower deck term for) the captain or executive officer of a warship, especially one regarded as tough on discipline and punishment.

      • A second green chit and then you get your hat for a talk with the bloke.

    2. An anglophone (English-speaking) man.

      • Try as I might, my broken French is not passing muster. […] I am also called a bloke, or, when the students are pissed at me, maudit bloke or damn bloke, or a tête carrée, which means square head.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bloke. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA