All 5 Uses

blockade
in
Killing Kennedy
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The third is a naval blockade of Cuban waters, preventing the Soviet ships carrying nuclear warheads from reaching the missiles.†
p. 112.4

blockade = action to keep people and goods from reaching a location
Soviet ships have every right to enter Cuban waters and unload any cargo they like and that the American naval quarantine—a fancy way of saying "blockade," which is an act of war—is reprehensible.†
p. 121.8
In it the Communist leader states calmly and unequivocally that the president's proposed naval blockade is "a pirate act."†
p. 124.6 *
He responds less than three hours later, coolly stating that the blockade is necessary and placing all blame for the crisis on Khrushchev and the Soviets.†
p. 124.7
Yet he does not lift the blockade.†
p. 128.4

Definitions:

(1) (blockade)
action to keep people and goods from reaching a location
(2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
More rarely, blockade can refer to any blockage--such as a physiological obstruction of a biochemical receptor.