brick
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: brĭk
ipa: /bɹɪk/
rhymes: -ɪk
Forms: form: bricks
Etymology: From Late Middle English brik, bryke, bricke, from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch bricke ("cracked or broken brick; tile-stone"; modern Dutch brik), ultimately related to Proto-West Germanic *brekan (“to break”), whence also Old French briche and French brique (“brick”). Compare also German Low German Brickje (“small board, tray”). Related to break.
Senses: examples: text: This wall is made of bricks.
glosses: A hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building.
examples: text: This house is made of brick.
glosses: Such hardened mud, clay, etc. considered collectively, as a building material.
examples: text: a plastic explosive brick
glosses: Something shaped like a brick.
examples: text: The handyman considered the question and I knew she had a brick of ground beans in her bag but was considering whether the beds and a hot drink was worth a brick of coffee.
ref: 2011, Seth Kenlon, Revolution Radio, page 70:
text: He disentangled himself from the safe door and delved inside. He brought out a brick of banknotes.
ref: 2012, Kevin Sampson, Powder, page 34:
text: A few times, when I got tired of my whisky highs and tobacco fumes, I turned to my new little helper, the tiny brick of cannabis resin I got from Don.
ref: 2021, Stan Erisman, A Sea of Troubles, page 31:
glosses: The colour brick red.
examples: text: Thanks for helping me wash the car. You’re a brick.
text: “It's easy to see you're a brick!” replied Lady Augusta, and the laugh again became general.
ref: 1863, Elizabeth Caroline Grey, Good Society; Or, Contrasts of Character, page 72:
text: Theobald's mind worked in this way: "Now, I know Ernest has told this boy what a disagreeable person I am, and I will just show him that I am not disagreeable at all, but a good old fellow, a jolly old boy, in fact a regular old brick, and that it is Ernest who is in fault all through."
ref: 1903, Samuel Butler, chapter 48, in The Way of All Flesh:
text: ‘Somebody had to stay with you,’ said Bobbie.
‘Tell you what, Bobbie,’ said Jim, ‘you’re a brick. Shake.’
ref: 1906, Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children, page 168:
text: “Well, I’ll do what I can for you,” said the seaman, …“If you were only shorter, I'd lend you some clothes.”
“You're a brick,” said the soldier gratefully.
ref: 1960, W.W. Jacobs, Cargoes, →ISBN, page 45:
glosses: A helpful and reliable person.
examples: text: We can't win if we keep throwing up bricks from three-point land.
topics: ball-games
basketball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: A shot which misses, particularly one which bounces directly out of the basket because of a too-flat trajectory, as if the ball were a heavier object.
glosses: A power brick; an external power supply consisting of a small box with an integral male plug and an attached cord terminating in another plug.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: An electronic device, especially a heavy box-shaped one, that has become non-functional or obsolete.
examples: text: I was on deck watching the firing, and looking at the direction in which our guns were pointing, it was obvious that it was not going to be Centurion who was going to receive our bricks.
ref: 2019, Daniel Knowles, HMS Hood: Pride of the Royal Navy:
topics: government
military
naval
navy
politics
war
glosses: A projectile.
topics: engineering
firearms
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
tools
war
weaponry
glosses: A carton of 500 rimfire cartridges, which forms the approximate size and shape of a brick.
examples: text: The two of clubs was a complete brick on the river.
topics: card-games
poker
glosses: A community card (usually the turn or the river) which does not improve a player's hand.
examples: text: I can sell bricks, I don't need to rap / Buj so peng it makes the fiends collapse / Cook that coca into crack / I was selling Zs while you was in your bed
ref: 2013, Snap Capone, “Lights Out” (0:16 from the start), in The Memoir:
glosses: A kilogram of cocaine.
examples: text: Was she like you—a brick, never passed, never gonna?
ref: 2022, Gretchen Felker-Martin, chapter VI, in Manhunt, page 40:
text: In the world of drag, “brick” is a shady word, slang lobbed at queens whose makeup looks busted, whose wardrobes have seen better days, or who are just generally giving hot mess.
ref: 2023 July 2, Cameron Scheetz, Queerty:
text: :( body positivity doesn't work on me :3 being a brick is awful smh
ref: 2024 December 21, u/veggieagain, Reddit, r/4tran4:
antonyms: fish
qualifier: LGBTQ slang
glosses: A trans woman who does not pass.
Derived terms: air brick
all-brick
alphabet brick
bang one's head against a brick wall
Bath brick
Besser brick
biobrick
brick-a-brack
brick-and-mortar
brick and mortar
brickbat
brick breaker
brick-buster
brick by brick
brick cheese
brick chicken
brickclay
brickdust
bricken
bricker
brickery
brickette
brickfield
brickfilm
brick hammer
brickhead
brick house
brickie
brick in one's hat
brickish
brick joke
brickkiln
bricklay
bricklayer
bricklaying
brickless
bricklike
brickmaker
brickmaking
brickman
brickmold
brickmould
brickor mortis
brick pack
brickpack
brick phone
brick-red
brick red
bricks and clicks
bricks and mortar
brickscape
brick-shaped
brickshaped
brick shithouse
brick slip
brick stamp
brickstamp
brick stitch
brick-tea
brick toast
Bricktop
Bricktown
brick veneer
brick venereal disease
brick wall
brick walled
brick-wall limiter
brickwise
brickwork
brickworks
bricky
brickyard
Bristol brick
built like a brick outhouse
built like a brick shipyard
built like a brick shithouse
chicken brick
chicken under a brick
debrick
dive brick
diving brick
drop a brick
drop like a hot brick
dumb as a brick
ecobrick
face brick
firebrick
fire brick
flying brick
frit brick
goldbrick
gold brick
gold-brick
have a brick in one's hat
hit a brick wall
hit the bricks
I could eat a brick
lath brick
like a cat on hot bricks
like a ton of bricks
like speaking to a brick wall
like talking to a brick wall
London to a brick
make bricks without straw
make bricks without straws
Millwall brick
mudbrick
nanobrick
oil of brick
one brick short of a full load
phytobrick
rebrick
red-brick
redbrick
red brick university
Roman brick
run into a brick wall
shit a brick
shit bricks
soap brick
take to the bricks
talk to a brick wall
thick as a brick
Turán's brick factory problem
Xbrick
yellow brick road
yellow-brick road