Meanings
plural block bookings · alternative block-booking
- uncountableThe reservation of a large number of hotel rooms, tickets, or other items at one time; (countable) an instance of this.
The restaurant has a block booking for Saturday night.
1 more example
Our next trip is the 1440 to North Berwick. Our train is formed of a three-car Class 385 and is full to the point that not everyone gets a seat. Partly that appears to be down to a block booking, but it seems that plenty of people know that a nice coastal town is just half an hour from Edinburgh city centre.
2025 March 19, “Investment pays off in Scotland”, in RAIL, number 1031, page 56 - UShistoricaluncountablebroadcastingThe sale of multiple films by a film studio to a theater as a unit, without the latter knowing much about them, allowing the studio to package less popular films with more popular ones. The Supreme Court of the United States determined the practice to be in violation of antitrust law in 1948.
Origin
From block (“apportionment or grouping of like things treated together as a unit”, noun) + booking (noun).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Finnish iso varaus, nippumyynti
- iso varausreservation of a large number of hotel rooms, tickets, or other items at one time; an instance of this
- nippumyyntisale of multiple films by a film studio to a theater as a unit
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with block booking
All rhymes →Cite this entry
block booking. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/block%20booking
“block booking.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/block%20booking. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “block booking,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/block%20booking.
Source: block booking on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.