blockbustingn.
/ˈblɒkˌbʌstɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈblɑkˌbəstɪŋ/ 1. The dropping of blockbusters (sense 1a); heavy aerial bombardment; the destruction caused by doing this. Now rare.
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1942 N.Y. Times 10 Sept. (Late City ed.) 12/4 This was a power bombing, the aim was to wipe out a big area. This in flying slang is called ‘block busting’.
1950 Middlesboro (Kentucky) Daily News 27 Sept. 1/4 (caption) Block-busting by B-29's.
2. Chiefly U.S. The practice of persuading homeowners to sell property cheaply due to fear of people of another ethnic or socio-economic group (esp. black people) moving into the neighbourhood, in order to profit by reselling at a higher price (often to a member of the incoming group); participation or involvement in such practices. Later also used to refer to other practices involving the change of ownership or occupancy of properties within a neighbourhood in such a way as to alter its demographic profile, reputation, etc.Blockbusting was made illegal in the United States under the Fair Housing Act of 1968.
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society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town or city > part of town or city > [noun] > introducing black people into white area
blockbusting1951
1951 J. Lait & L. Mortimer Washington Confidential i. vi. 43 White property-owners tremble at the financial danger that would result should Negroes crash white residential areas. But entry is made through a tactic known as ‘block-busting’.
1955 San Mateo (Calif.) Times 3 Aug. 4/2 The rezoning requests..was [sic] described as ‘block-busting’ by residents of the Fifth addition at the meeting.
1999 N.Y. Times 19 Dec. xiv. 14/4 This is basically a form of blockbusting. They pay a crazy amount of money for a home, move in and soon no one else wants to live there because there are too many homes [i.e. group homes for the developmentally disabled] in the neighborhood.
2020 Frederick (Maryland) News-Post (Nexis) 21 Aug. He is..committed to doing much more..to help undo the effects of unfair housing policies such as redlining and blockbusting.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2021; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
blockbustingadj.
/ˈblɒkˌbʌstɪŋ/, U.S. /ˈblɑkˌbəstɪŋ/ 1.
a. Of, relating to, or involving the use of blockbusters (sense 1a); characterized by heavy aerial bombardment; (of a bomb) capable of causing widespread destruction. Now chiefly historical.In quot. 1942 perhaps a use of blockbusting n. 1 as a modifier.
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1942 Indianapolis Star 28 July 8/1 The brilliant star was regarded as almost a cinch to win the tournament. Then his game blew up like a ‘block busting’ bomb on Hamburg.
1945 R. Leigh Amer. Enterprise in Europe (2002) x. 124 Ammunition included everything from millions of cartridges for carbines and rifles to block-busting bombs for the Air Forces.
a1982 F. H. Drinkwater Secret Name (1986) 169 In the last war a young airman officer refused to go on the block-busting raids on German cities, and spent the rest of the war in prison.
2010 R. M. White & J. L. Summers Higher & Faster iv. 67 I shuddered to think what a block-busting bomb would do to our flimsy little car.
b. Possessing or capable of great physical force or power; physically formidable; delivered with great force.
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1942 Boston Globe 21 Sept. 6/3 Uncle George Halas..had to be summoned onto the field to quell Ray Nolting, one his block-busting backs, who seemed ready to fight the whole Army.
1962 Observer 14 Oct. 18/8 Ian McLachlan, block-busting stroke-maker who hit up 576 runs last summer.
2018 Bolton News (Nexis) 10 Nov. The returning Sammy Ameobi went close with another blockbusting shot before the break.
2. That is a blockbuster (sense 2); resembling or characteristic of a blockbuster; esp. (of a film, book, etc.) conceived on an epic or grandiose scale or achieving great commercial success; (more generally) enormously impressive, esp. as regards scale or impact.
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society > leisure > the arts > literature > prose > narrative or story > novel > [adjective] > types of novel
picaresque1822
Gothic1825
Minerva press1843
yellow1843
western1846
bluggy1876
cape and sword (also cape and cloak)1898
Mills & Boon1912
straight1936
blockbusting1943
Mills and Boony1946
private eye1946
police procedural1957
thrillerish1957
porno-Gothic1968
romantic1977
neo-noir1986
bonkbusting1993
society > leisure > the arts > performance arts > cinematography > a film > type of film > [adjective] > other types
costumed1851
foreign language1904
first run1910
Keystone1912
photodramatic1914
serial1915
coming of age1919
edge-of-your-seat1922
psychodramatic1927
omnibus1928
straight1936
low-budget1937
no-budget1937
screwball1937
Ealing1939
blockbusting1943
private eye1946
film noir1952
white telephone1952
portmanteau1953
uncut1953
anthology1955
three-D1955
Hammer1958
noir1958
co-production1959
kitchen sink1959
kidult1960
docudrama1961
cinéma vérité1963
maudit1963
filmi1965
indie1968
triple-X1969
XXX1969
drama-documentary1970
cheapie1973
gross-out1973
high concept1973
chopsocky1974
hard R1974
buddy movie1975
sci-fi1977
mondo1979
hack-and-slash1981
microbudget1981
hack-and-slay1982
slice-and-dice1982
fly on the wall1983
psychotronic1983
noirish1985
Mad Max1986
stoner1987
bonkbusting1993
straight to DVD1997
1943 Courier-Jrnl. (Louisville, Kentucky) 9 Feb. i. 5/1 (advt.) It’s hilarious! It’s block-busting! It’s aero-dynamic! Bowman Field presents ‘All Clear’ a gay musical revue staged by Bowman Field Army Air Forces.
1943 Hollywood Reporter 6 Aug. 1/2 All time house records for the first two days were broken at the Keith Memorial theatre in Boston when RKO's ‘Behind the Rising Sun’ turned in the block-busting gross of $15,544 for the two days.
1945 L. Hughes in Chicago Defender 8 Dec. 14/7 Then there is ‘Black Boy’... It's a big block-busting best-seller.
1952 A. Ginsberg Let. 15 May in J. Kerouac & A. Ginsberg Lett. (2010) 172 I wrote him, asking that I get editorship of one issue of New Story: will publish Carl, Self, You, Bill, Huncke..all together in one blockbusting issue.
1994 Inside Soap Aug. 8/3 The sudsy tale of teen angst and trauma set against the backdrop of Hartley High..is a spin-off of the blockbusting Australian movie Heartbreak Kid.
2014 Daily Tel. 16 Oct. 33/2 Hugh Rae..was a 15-stone Glaswegian son of a riveter who wrote blockbusting historical romantic fiction..under the nom de plume Jessica Stirling.
3. Chiefly U.S. Esp. of a real estate agent or broker: engaged in, involved in, of the nature of, or characterized by blockbusting (see blockbusting n. 2).
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1957 Jackson (Mississippi) Advocate 27 Apr. 4/1 The expansion will proceed, either under some sort of agreed plan or dangerously and haphazardly under so-called block-busting tactics.
1972 N.Y. Times 13 Aug. iv. 3/3 The town banned the use of ‘for sale’ signs on houses, hoping thereby to quell activities among blockbusting realtors and panic among white residents.
2002 Village Voice (N.Y.) 23 Oct. 22/3 He saw..block-busting real estate hustlers destroying once vibrant neighborhoods.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2021; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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n.1942adj.1942