brick1
/brɪk
/noun
1A small rectangular block typically made of fired or sun-dried clay, used in building.Mud and wattle or sun-dried bricks are used in house building in rural areas; well-off families may use concrete blocks....
- In Guinea, most new small buildings are made of badly fired bricks, and have corrugated metal roofs.
- Cracked mortar between bricks should also be repointed by carefully removing and replacing any unsound mortar.
1.1 [mass noun] Bricks collectively as a building material: this mill was built of brick [as modifier]: a large brick building...
- Woodlawn is brick, a building material rarely used in early nineteenth-century Maine where lumber was so plentiful.
- Wall materials such as stucco, cement, brick, plaster, stone, and block are most resistant to high temperatures.
- The primary building material was large adobe brick, and huge pyramids towered above the city.
1.2A small rectangular object: a brick of ice cream...
- Get a brick of white, scent-free glycerin soap from the craft store.
- Think of a beautiful counter with nothing to chop on it, except a brick of ice.
- She remembered selling him a brick of hash out of the broken down toilet stall.
Synonyms
block, cube, slab, bar, cake
1.3British A child’s toy building block: the bricks and other plastic toys then need to be fitted back into their appropriate containers...
- We hadn't come 5,000 miles to a land of forests to spend our time pining for theme parks made out of little plastic bricks.
- They're designed to fit together in a stack, just like the famous Danish plastic bricks.
- Thanks to his wooden toy bricks, he had mastered ‘the laws of practical stability in towers and arches’.
2 informal A large and relatively heavy mobile phone, typically an early model with limited functionality: I had one of those Motorola bricks as my first cell phone...
- It was a large brick with a massive battery issued by someone like Motorola.
- The classic brick phone had an LED screen and boasted 30 minutes of talk time with eight hours of standby.
- The first hand-held phones, affectionately known as "bricks", were still big and bulky, only made voice calls, and cost more than $4000.
2.1A smartphone or other electronic device that has completely ceased to function: while updating the firmware the USB cable got disconnected and the phone is now a brick...
- The 4.0.1 update has turned my phone into a brick.
- I need to somehow upgrade my Android 2.2 to 2.3 or higher - not as easy as you think without turning your cell into a brick.
- Cracked screens, broken casings and malfunctioning operating systems short-circuited by moisture damage or dust infiltration can cause massive headaches and turn an expensive device into a useless brick.
3British informal, dated A generous, helpful, and reliable person: ‘You are really a brick, Vi,’ Gloria said...
- Mr. Hall is such a brick, that when we get back he is going to take us all in.
- He's a brick, a chip off the old block, a good 'un.
- Large, jolly and boisterous, Carol is regarded as something of a brick, and there are sound reasons for the affection she commands.
verb [with object]
1Block or enclose with a wall of bricks: the doors have been bricked up...
- The walls were bricked but filled with sports pictures and the booths were all different colors.
- Those windows were bricked in because to do so was far cheaper than making the needed structural repairs.
- Some of the doors were bolted shut, some were bricked up.
2British informal Throw bricks at: the pub was attacked and windows in the area were bricked...
- The action threat follows an incident on Saturday night when a Stagecoach service was bricked as it travelled down Bowerham Road towards Lancaster city centre.
- In Chapelfields last night, a vehicle was damaged as youths held a wire or rope in front of it, and in Danebury Drive, Acomb, a bus was bricked.
- The robocops appeared from nowhere and got bricked and bottled but managed to block us in.
3 informal Cause (a smartphone or other electronic device) to become completely unable to function, typically on a permanent basis: installing an unofficial OS voids the warranty and may brick the phone...
- The last time we did a major over-the-air update on a phone, it bricked a perfectly good Sony Ericsson.
- I called customer service and their suggestions bricked the phone.
- Not all ROMs work on all phones and you can definitely brick your phone by failing to flash a ROM correctly.
4 (be bricking oneself) British vulgar slang Be extremely worried or nervous.
Phrases
a brick short of a load
bricks and mortar
brick by brick
come up against (or hit) a brick wall
like a ton of bricks
London to a brick on
you can't make bricks without straw
Origin
Late Middle English: from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch bricke, brike; probably reinforced by Old French brique; of unknown ultimate origin.
English brick is found only from the middle of the 15th century. It was probably introduced by Flemish workmen, for it is a Low German word and Flemings were associated with early brick making. Use of the word was probably reinforced by Old French brique ‘a form of loaf’. Some French dialects still have the phrase brique de pain ‘piece of bread’. The ultimate origin is unknown.
Rhymes
Brick2
/brik
/A township in southeastern New Jersey; population 78,419 (est. 2008).