brick

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.

• enPR: brĭk, IPA^(key): /bɹɪk/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪk

brick (countable and uncountable, plural bricks)

1. (countable) A hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building.

   This wall is made of bricks.

2. (uncountable) Such hardened mud, clay, etc. considered collectively, as a building material.

   This house is made of brick.

3. (countable) Something shaped like a brick.

   a plastic explosive brick

   • 2011, Seth Kenlon, Revolution Radio, page 70:

     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.

   • 2012, Kevin Sampson, Powder, page 34:

     He disentangled himself from the safe door and delved inside. He brought out a brick of banknotes.

   • 2021, Stan Erisman, A Sea of Troubles, page 31:

     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.

4. (slang, dated) A helpful and reliable person.

   Thanks for helping me wash the car. You're a brick.

   • 1863, Elizabeth Caroline Grey, Good Society; Or, Contrasts of Character‎, page 72:

     “It's easy to see you're a brick!” replied Lady Augusta, and the laugh again became general.

   • 1903, Samuel Butler, chapter 48, in The Way of All Flesh:

     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."

   • 1906, Edith Nesbit, The Railway Children‎, page 168:

     ‘Somebody had to stay with you,’ said Bobbie.
     ‘Tell you what, Bobbie,’ said Jim, ‘you’re a brick. Shake.’

   • 1960, W.W. Jacobs, Cargoes‎, →ISBN, page 45:

     “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.

5. (basketball, slang) 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.

   We can't win if we keep throwing up bricks from three-point land.

6. (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.
7. (computing slang, figurative) An electronic device, especially a heavy box-shaped one, that has become non-functional or obsolete.
8. (UK, naval, slang) A projectile.
   • 2019, Daniel Knowles, HMS Hood: Pride of the Royal Navy:

     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.

9. (firearms) A carton of 500 rimfire cartridges, which forms the approximate size and shape of a brick.
10. (poker slang) A community card (usually the turn or the river) which does not improve a player's hand.

    The two of clubs was a complete brick on the river.

11. The colour brick red.

    brick:  

12. (slang) A kilogram of cocaine.
    • 2013, Snap Capone (lyrics and music), “Lights Out”, in The Memoir‎, from 0:16:

      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

• ⇒ Welsh: brics

A brick wall

brick (not comparable)

1. (colloquial, African-American Vernacular, New York, of weather) Extremely cold.
   • 2005, Vibe, volume 12, number 14, page 102:

     And while the tropics are definitely the place to be when it's brick outside, rocking a snorkel on the beach only works when you're snorkeling.

   • 2014, Ray Mack, Underestimated: A Searcher's Story, →ISBN, page 89:

     He was always hanging tight with me and since he had access to a ride . . . it made traveling easier. I mean it was no biggie brain buster to take the train, but when it's brick outside . . . fuck the A train.

   • 2017 January 18, Anthony J. Yeung, “Running During Winter Sucks. But It Doesn't Have To.”, in Esquire:

     Read on for tips so you don't freeze your ass off when it's brick outside.

   • 2018 January 4, Melissa Hipolit, “HUD: Creighton Court residents without heat being relocated”, in CBS 6 TV:

     "It's brick cold. Could you imagine stepping on this with your bare foot?" Taylor said.

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

1. (transitive) To build, line, or form with bricks.
   • 1904, Thomas Hansom Cockin, An Elementary Class-Book of Practical Coal-Mining, C. Lockwood and Son, page 78:

     If the ground is strong right up to the surface, a few yards are usually sunk and bricked before the engines and pit top are erected

   • 1914, The Mining Engineer, Institution of Mining Engineers, page 349:

     The shaft was next bricked between the decks until the top scaffold was supported by the brickwork and [made] to share the weight with the prids.

   • 2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 18:

     He came in and we went out to the back area I'd bricked amateurishly years ago.

2. (transitive) To make into bricks.
   • 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

     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.

3. (transitive, slang) To hit someone or something with a brick.
4. (transitive, computing slang) To make an electronic device nonfunctional and usually beyond repair, essentially making it no more useful than a brick.

   My VCR was bricked during the lightning storm.

5. (intransitive, computing slang, of an electronic device) To become nonfunctional, especially in a way beyond repair.

   My phone bricked halfway through the videoconference.

   • 2002 October 15, Mike Leeson, “How to write protect nk.bin”, in microsoft.public.windowsce.platbuilder‎ (Usenet), retrieved 2016-02-25, message-ID <OHm5#hLdCHA.2592@tkmsftngp09>:

     Just need to project against users from deleting NK.BIN and bricking the device.

   • 2007 December 14, Joe Barr, “PacketProtector turns SOHO router into security powerhouse”, in Linux.com:

     installing third-party firmware will void your warranty, and it is possible that you may brick your router.

   • 2016, Alex Hern, “Revolv devices bricked as Google's Nest shuts down smart home company”, in The Guardian‎:

     Google owner Alphabet’s subsidiary Nest is closing a smart-home company it bought less than two years ago, leaving customers’ devices useless as of May. […] The company declined to share how many customers would be left with bricked devices as a result of the shutdown.

6. (intransitive, slang) To blunder; to screw up.

• (antonym(s) of “technology, slang: revert a device to the operational state”): unbrick

• bricker
• brick in
• brick it
• brick over
• brick up

• brickfielder
• brick it

• brick on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “brick”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

From English brig.

• IPA^(key): /bʁik/

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brick m (plural bricks)

1. (nautical) a brig, a two-masted vessel type
2. a fritter with a filling

• → Romanian: bric
• → Ottoman Turkish: بریق (brik)
  • Turkish: brik

• “brick”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

brick m pl

1. plural of breck

Unadapted borrowing from English brick.

brick m (plural bricks)

1. (ultimate frisbee) brick

brick

1. South Scots form of brak (“to break”)

   Make shair ee deh brick yon vase!

   Make sure he doesn't break that vase over there!