brick
See also: Brick
English
Etymology
From French briche, brique (“brick”), probably from a Germanic source. Compare to Middle Dutch bricke (“broken piece; tile”), Middle English brike. Cognate with the verb break.
Noun
brick (countable and uncountable, plural bricks)
- (countable) A hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building.
- This wall is made of bricks.
- (uncountable) Considered collectively, as a building material.
- This house is made of brick.
- (countable) Something shaped like a brick.
- a plastic explosive brick
- (slang, dated) A helpful and reliable person.
- Thanks for helping me wash the car. You're a brick.
- 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.’
- (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.
- (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.
- (technology, slang) An electronic device, especially a heavy box-shaped one, that has become non-functional or obsolete.
- (firearms) A carton of 500 rimfire cartridges, which forms the approximate size and shape of a brick.
- (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
- The colour brick red.
Derived terms
- all-brick
- brickie
- bricklayer
- brick-red
- Bricktown
- brickwork
- brickworks
Related terms
- brick in one's hat
- brick red
- bricks and clicks
- bricks and mortar
- brick shithouse
- drop a brick
- hit the bricks
- like a cat on a hot brick
- like a ton of bricks
- make bricks without straw
- make bricks without straws
- run into a brick wall
- shit a brick
- shit bricks
- take to the bricks
- talk to a brick wall
- thick as a brick
Descendants
- ⇒ Welsh: brics
Translations
hardened block used for building
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a building material
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term for a helpful, reliable person
an external power supply
a heavy electronic device that has become obsolete
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Translations to be checked
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Adjective
brick (not comparable)
- (colloquial, African American Vernacular, New England, 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.
- 2005, Vibe (volume 12, number 14, page 102)
Derived terms
Translations
Verb
brick (third-person singular simple present bricks, present participle bricking, simple past and past participle bricked)
- To build 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.
- 1904, Thomas Hansom Cockin, An Elementary Class-Book of Practical Coal-Mining, C. Lockwood and Son, page 78
- 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.
- 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
- (slang) To hit someone or something with a brick.
- (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.
- 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”, 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.
Antonyms
- (technology, slang: revert a device to nonoperational state): unbrick
Translations
See also
Further reading
brick on Wikipedia.Wikipedia - “brick” in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press.
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /bʁik/
Audio (file)
Further reading
- “brick” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).
Manx
Mutation
Manx mutation | ||
---|---|---|
Radical | Lenition | Eclipsis |
brick | vrick | mrick |
Note: Some of these forms may be hypothetical. Not every possible mutated form of every word actually occurs. |
Scots
Verb
brick
- South Scots form of brak (“to break”)
- Make shair ee deh brick yon vase!
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
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