block ornament

plural block ornaments · alternative block-ornament

1. AustraliaUKobsoleteslangA small fragment of cheap meat offered for sale by a butcher, particularly one of poor quality.First known use 1843

   [H]ow often, after a search through the old purse they clutch so tightly, they turn away the coveted "block-ornimint" being beyond their means.

   1909 January 7, Westminster Gazette, page 2

   3 more examples

   I ought to add, that the “single fellows,” instead of living on “block ornaments” and the like, live, when doing well, on the best fare, at the “spiciest” cook-shops on their rounds, or in the neighbourhood of their residence.

   1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861

   It is certain that in the Chinese meat stores you see a number of scraps of meat of the "block ornament" order, the dubious hue of which–usually a dingy greyish purple, with streaks of drab fat–[…]

   1885, George Augustus Sala, America Revisited, Vizetelly & Company, page 501

   [T]ogether with such scraps as may also be purchased, at a penny or twopence the plateful, at the beef and ham emporium, with maybe a "block ornament" or two from the butcher's, in a pie dish, with a superstructure of potatoes, and have the "scrap pie" cooked at the baker's for the Sunday dinner. Poor wretches!

   1897, Edward Spencer Mott, Cakes and Ale, page 78

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see block, ornament.

   The wall plate is finely moulded, and the wooden columns supporting the principals have a curious diamond block ornament.

   1852, Transactions of the Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club, page 171

   1 more example

   a presents the elevation, b the section to the block ornament to A, and c shows a vertical section of the block ornament to B[…]

   1833, Asher Benjamin, Practice of Architecture, →ISBN, page 92