brick

en-noun

brick (countable and uncountable, plural bricks)

⇒ Welsh: brics

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.

gloss

"cracked or broken brick; tile-stone"; modern Dutch <i class="Latn mention" lang="nl">brik</i>

cog

(informal) A power brick; an external power supply consisting of a small box with an integral male power plug and an attached electric cord terminating in another power plug.


brick

en-verb

brick (third-person singular simple present bricks, present participle bricking, simple past and past participle bricked)

bricks (present singular third-person)
bricking (participle present)
bricked (participle past)
bricked (past)

unbrick

technology, slang: revert a device to the operational state

The plant, which is here described, for bricking fine ores and flue dust, was designed and the plans produced in the engineering department of the Selby smelter.

1904 September 15, James C. Bennett, Walter Renton Ingalls (editor), Lead Smelting and Refining with Some Notes on Lead Mining (1906), The Engineering and Mining Journal, page 66

My VCR was bricked during the lightning storm.

(transitive, computing slang) To make an electronic device nonfunctional and usually beyond repair, essentially making it no more useful than a brick.


brickie

(British, New Zealand, Australia, slang) A bricklayer.


bricks and mortar

brick and mortar
brick and mortar#English


brick red

Of a warm brownish-red colour similar to that of red clay bricks.


red brick university

en-noun

red brick university (plural red brick universities)

From the memoir Redbrick University by Edgar Allison Peers, whose titular university is based on the University of Liverpool. Liverpool, like most urban universities of the late-19th and early-20th centuries, extensively uses red clay bricks in its architecture.

It took a while before he told me his background: a happy childhood; two degrees—a bachelor's from a red brick university and an Oxbridge PhD; a relatively high-flying job in academia that he liked rather than loved.

2006 March 31, Adrian Turpin, “Not tonight darling, I'm online”, in Financial Times, retrieved 2006-03-31:

(British) Any traditional British university other than Oxford or Cambridge, especially one founded in the Victorian age in a large city.

Edgar Allison Peers
University of Liverpool
red brick university


redbrick

red brick university
red brick university#English


like a cat on a hot tin roof

A simile developed from the behaviour of a cat observed on a hot tin roof.

(simile, colloquial, chiefly US) Jumpy, nervous.


brickwork

A structure, or portion of a structure, that is made out of bricks.

The quality of the construction of a brick structure.


brickfielder

From the location name Brickfield Hill, after the hill in Surry Hills (now in inner Sydney) from the direction of which a hot wind blew into Sydney in its early days. The term spread to Melbourne by circa 1850, and to central Australia by circa 1900, then to Western Australia.

Returning home, he discovers that the house is full of sand ; that the brickfielder has even insinuated itself between the leaves of his books ; that at dinner he will probably find that his favourite dish has been spoiled by the brickfielder.

1845, J. O. Balfour, A Sketch of New South Wales, page 5:

A southerly buster would blow — a Sydney brickfielder;[…].

1914, Henry Mills Alden, Thomas Bucklin Wells, Harper's Magazine, volume 129, page 508:

Then he had to concentrate his efforts on a smooth descent through the swirling gusts of the brickfielder.

1986, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, volume 106, numbers 1-4, page 60:

Hot spells many days in duration, with temperatures daily exceeding 100°F. (38°C), often take place while the brickfielder blows.

2005, Ajay Kumar Ghosh, Dictionary of Geography, page 45:

(Australia) A hot, dry, dusty wind of southern or central Australia.


brick up

en-verb

brick up (third-person singular simple present bricks up, present participle bricking up, simple past and past participle bricked up)

bricks up (present singular third-person)
bricking up (participle present)
bricked up (participle past)
bricked up (past)

The chest was bricked up into the wall.

We've encountered servers bricked up into secret rooms many times, but never a UPS hidden behind a locked door.

2020 December 11, Richard Speed, “Oh, no one knows what goes on behind locked doors... so don't leave your UPS in there”, in The Register, archived from the original on 2022-01-20:

(transitive) To trap or seal in a closed space using bricks.


shit a brick

shit a brick (third-person singular simple present shits a brick, present participle shitting a brick, simple past shit a brick or shat a brick or shitted a brick, past participle shit a brick or shitted a brick or shat a brick)

shits a brick (present singular third-person)
shitting a brick (participle present)
shit a brick (past)
shat a brick (past)
shitted a brick (past)
shit a brick (participle past)
shitted a brick (participle past)
shat a brick (participle past)

If our boss finds out we did this and didn't tell him, he's gonna shit a brick.

She was thunderstruck when she came face to face with the tomb of Sir Isaac Newton. At her age, and in that same place, my big brother Bernie, a born scientist who can't draw or paint for sour apples, would have shit an even bigger brick.

(idiomatic, vulgar) To react strongly or excessively, especially in anger, fear, or astonishment.


brick shithouse

en-noun

brick shithouse (plural brick shithouses)

Part Polynesian, part Melanesian, part brick shithouse. He crossed the gym with the proprietary waddle of a troll in its lair, […]

2000, Shane Maloney, Nice Try: A Murray Whelan Mystery, page 75:

He felt like he'd just slammed a brick shithouse.

2001, J. R. Parker, Winter Kill, page 9:

She looked really fine, a bonafide brick shithouse.

2002, Joseph Geren, Chastity's Virtue: A Michael Marcus Mystery, page 50:

(slang, vulgar) A person with a well-developed body.


thick as a brick

So you ride yourselves over the fields
And you make all your animal deals
And your wise men don't know how it feels
To be thick as a brick.

1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull:

(simile) Very stupid; slow to learn or understand.

愚不可及

so thick that no one else in the world can compare


hit the bricks

en-verb

hit the bricks (third-person singular simple present hits the bricks, present participle hitting the bricks, simple past and past participle hit the bricks)

hits the bricks (present singular third-person)
hitting the bricks (participle present)
hit the bricks (participle past)
hit the bricks (past)

When Harry Bridges told his boys to hit the bricks, Charley was always up front in the longshoremen's wall of flesh. His picketing record in the bloody dockside strife of 1934 and in the all-out strike of 1937 was perfect.

1947 March 31, “National Affairs: Waterfront Conchie”, in Time:

Queens bus driver Mousie Garcia, 30, said she doesn't want a strike but will hit the bricks if the MTA doesn't come through with no-strings-attached raises.

2002 December 16, Pete Donohue et al., “MTA and union push against strike deadline”, in New York Daily News, retrieved 2009-06-24:

(idiomatic) To participate in a workplace strike or other job action; to participate in a public protest, especially one involving picketing.

take to the bricks

participate in a job action or public protest


like a ton of bricks

The Defendant then came down on me like a ton of bricks, as my eye will prove.

Senator Breaux: Did you see this coming on gradually, or did it hit you all of a sudden like a ton of bricks?

2000, United States Senate, The Boomers are Coming: The Challenge of Family Caregiving : Hearing Before the Special Committee on Aging, United States Senate, One Hundred Sixth Congress, First Session, Monroe, LA, October 11, 1999, →ISBN, page 34:

“I still feel so bad about that. I fell for you like a ton of bricks when I first saw you onstage with the band.[…]"

2009 October 29, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Mr Stink, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

(simile, colloquial) Very strongly; very heavily; often unexpectedly.


brick in

brick in (third-person singular simple present bricks in, present participle bricking in, simple past and past participle bricked in)

bricks in (present singular third-person)
bricking in (participle present)
bricked in (participle past)
bricked in (past)

(transitive, idiomatic, of a passage or of something that would pass through it) To enclose with bricks.


drop a brick

drop a brick (third-person singular simple present drops a brick, present participle dropping a brick, simple past and past participle dropped a brick)

drops a brick (present singular third-person)
dropping a brick (participle present)
dropped a brick (participle past)
dropped a brick (past)

drop a bombshell
drop a bombshell#English

(US, idiomatic) Alternative form of drop a bombshell


brick it

brick it (third-person singular simple present bricks it, present participle bricking it, simple past and past participle bricked it)

bricks it (present singular third-person)
bricking it (participle present)
bricked it (participle past)
bricked it (past)

The first time I performed in public I was bricking it.

I always replied with a casual and breezy ‘Iʼll be fine,’ but deep down I was bricking it.

2020, Louise Curtis with Sarah Johnson, A Nurseʼs Story: My Life in A&E During the Covid Crisis, Pan Books, page 70:

I felt in control, but regardless, when the snow started coming over and it got dark/harder to breathe, I was bricking it and I thought I might die.

2022 July 11, Harry Taylor, quoting Harry Shimmin, “British tourists survive avalanche in Tian Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan”, in The Guardian:

(slang, vulgar) To be scared; to be terrified.


lath brick

A long, slender brick used in making the floor on which malt is placed in the drying kiln.


Dutch clinker

A very hard, narrow, yellowish brick made in Holland, used to pave stables etc.


brick in one's hat

US, circa 1846. Presumably due to staggering walk when drunk; compare top-heavy with drink.

Seated at the same table with our Mr.—, was a gentleman, who, to use the current phrase, ‘had a brick in his hat.’

1846 November 20, “Magnelia Pedestria; or, Leaves from a Pedestrian’s Note Book”, in The Yale Literary Magazine, volume 12, number 1, page 33:

Her husband had taken to the tavern, and often came home very late, “with a brick in his hat,” as Sally expressed it.

1849, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh, pages 177–178:

(New England, obsolete, idiomatic) Drunkenness.


make bricks without straw

make bricks without straw (third-person singular simple present makes bricks without straw, present participle making bricks without straw, simple past and past participle made bricks without straw)

makes bricks without straw (present singular third-person)
making bricks without straw (participle present)
made bricks without straw (participle past)
made bricks without straw (past)

From Exodus 5:18: "Now get to work. You will not be given any straw, yet you must produce your full quota of bricks." (NIV).

The founders did more than "make bricks without straw; they dreamed of a great cathedral and laid the foundations for it.

1938, Jonas A. Jonasson, Bricks without straw: the story of Linfield College, page 168:

To call on the owners of little farms, the tradesmen, labourers and sailors to pay their proportion of a [£20,000] tax, when perhaps there is not half that sum in circulation is something harder than being forced to make bricks without straw,” he wrote; "it is to make them without clay."

2008, Woody Holton, Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution, →ISBN, page 30:

The problems that we may find ourselves confronted with may be similar to a make bricks without straw condition, imposed by not only others but in large measure ourselves.

2014, Peter F. Serra, Snapshots of Inspiration, →ISBN, page 170:

(idiomatic) To accomplish a task without the proper materials or under unreasonable conditions; to do the impossible.

you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs


Bricktown

A neighborhood of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.


sandstock

A kind of brick, originally made with sand


take to the bricks

take to the bricks (third-person singular simple present takes to the bricks, present participle taking to the bricks, simple past took to the bricks, past participle taken to the bricks)

takes to the bricks (present singular third-person)
taking to the bricks (participle present)
took to the bricks (past)
taken to the bricks (participle past)

Alternative form of hit the bricks (“participate in a strike”)


talk to a brick wall

talk to a brick wall (third-person singular simple present talks to a brick wall, present participle talking to a brick wall, simple past and past participle talked to a brick wall)

talks to a brick wall (present singular third-person)
talking to a brick wall (participle present)
talked to a brick wall (participle past)
talked to a brick wall (past)

(idiomatic, colloquial) To be completely ignored or disregarded by someone, as if speaking to an inanimate object.

对牛弹琴 (duìniútánqín, literally “to play the guqin to a cow”)

kaikua kuuroille korville

subject is the thing that is ignored or disregarded


dumb as a brick

thick as a brick
thick as a brick#English