/bləʊk/, /bloʊk/
OriginOrigin 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”).
- Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, informalA fellow, a man; especially an ordinary man, a man on the street.
“He accordingly opened it [a letter], and read as follows:–
"Tim put on the tats yesterday and went out a durry-nakin on the shadows, gadding a hoof. He buzzed a bloak and a shakester of a yack and a ”
“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.”
“Half-sheepishly, the mechanic had eased round to nudge his mate to look also at the comical-looking bloke. And the bloke caught them both. They wiped the grin off their faces. Because the little bloke”
- Australia, Commonwealth, New-Zealand, especiallyAn exemplar of a certain masculine, independent male archetype.
“‘The Bloke’ is a certain kind of Australian or New Zealand male. […] The Classic Bloke is not a voluble beast. His speech patterns are best described as infrequent but colorful. […] The Bloke is pragm”
“Strong, bronzed, attractive, and, above all, incredibly Australian, Bloke’s Blokes bestride the world like colossi, less men than living gods, stepping from the pages of mythology into our hearts, and”
“My name is Charlie Staunton. I'm a bloke. […] In Australia, a bloke is the masculine archetype, associated with the country's national identity. […] And if you're a good bloke, you'll understand what ”
- Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, especially, informalA 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 superan”
“[…] Pakeha, and colonial, masculinity is situated in a homosocial environment. This homosociality is both gendered and ethnicized. The kiwi bloke is a Pakeha working man, at home on the football field”
“[H]e is a ‘blokes bloke’. A proper bloke, rather than something feminine or obviously dysfunctional.”
- Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, slang(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.”
- Quebec, colloquialAn anglophone (English-speaking) man.
“[A]n organization called "Bloke Quebecois" ("bloke" being a French slang term for Anglophone as well as a reference to the newly formed federal political party, the Bloc Québécois) sold T-shirts that ”
“One cartoon from the period depicted a muscular French Canadian worker being replaced by an effeminate looking English Canadian man on the job. The caption warned, "When we are gone their blokes will ”
“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.”
Formsblokes(plural) · bloak(alternative, archaic)
Source: Wiktionary