brick

Etymology

From Middle 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.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) enPR: brĭk, IPA^(key): /bɹɪk/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪk

Noun

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) Considered collectively, as a building material.

   This house is made of brick.

3. (countable) Something shaped like a brick.

   a plastic explosive brick

4. (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.

   • 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. (technology, slang) An electronic device, especially a heavy box-shaped one, that has become non-functional or obsolete.
8. (firearms) A carton of 500 rimfire cartridges, which forms the approximate size and shape of a brick.
9. (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

10. The colour brick red.

Adjective

A brick wall

brick (not comparable)

1. Made of brick(s).

   All that was left after the fire was the brick chimney.

Verb

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

1. 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.

2. 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. (slang) To hit someone or something with a brick.
4. (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.

See also

• brickfielder

Further reading

• brick on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology

From English brig.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bʁik/

Noun

brick m (plural bricks)

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

Further reading

• “brick” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Noun

brick m pl

1. plural of breck

Mutation

Etymology

From Old English brecan, from Proto-Germanic *brekaną.

Verb

brick

1. (South Scots) to break

   Make shair ee deh brick yon vase!