brick venerealadj.
/ˌbrɪk vᵻˈnɪərɪəl/, U.S. /ˌbrɪk vəˈnɪriəl/, Australian English /ˌbrɪk vəˈnɪəriəl/ Chiefly Australian (colloquial and humorous).
Of or relating to a suburban housing development characterized by houses having homogeneous facings of brick veneer, in a style perceived as ugly and ubiquitous.Frequently in brick venereal disease: the proliferation of brick veneer, with punning allusion to venereal disease. See venereal adj. 2a.Popularized as a lyric of the song Out in the Suburbs by the Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band: see quot. 1975.
ΚΠ
1972 H. Nye Sweet Beast xxxix. 313 On our block, the houses..were ‘brick-venereal’ single-story, single-family, owner-occupied residences.
1975 M. Conway & F. Olbrei Out in Suburbs in ‘Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band’ Australia (transcribed from song) You know it's a nice place, nice houses, cream brick venereal houses. Cream brick venereal disease spreading throughout the land.
1999 D. Dillon Archit. O'Neil Ford 123 Anyone who'd heard his diatribes on ‘brick venereal’ and ‘interior desecrators’ knew that beneath the jaunty and irreverent exterior lurked the soul of a Puritan.
2015 Canberra Times (Nexis) 18 Jan. a21 Suburbia, which is the result of zoning laws that separate uses, is composed of pods, highways and leftover spaces, in some cases leading to terminal brick-venereal disease.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2019; most recently modified version published online December 2021).
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adj.1972