What is "cockblock"

n. 1 (context vulgar slang English) A person who deliberately or inadvertently makes impossible another's intended goal of sexual intercourse. 2 (context vulgar slang by extension English) Something designed to prevent one from achieving a goal (e.g. an intentionally difficult level of video game). vb. 1 (context vulgar slang English) To make impossible another's intended goal of sexual intercourse. 2 (context vulgar slang by extension English) To prevent someone from achieving a goal, aggressively getting in the way.

Cockblock is a slang term for an action, intentional or not, that serves to prevent someone from having sex. Such behavior is often motivated by jealousy, or competitiveness, although it is sometimes accidental, or inadvertent. A cockblock or cockblocker is a person who engages in such obstruction or intervention.

Social research has documented norms among male peer groups that view "cockblock" behavior as negative, which may make men less likely to challenge each other's behavior or impede sexual access to women, even in cases of possible sexual assault or intimate partner violence. The term appears to date at least to 1972, when Edith Folb documented its use by urban black teenagers.