brick
Americannoun
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bricks
plural
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a block of clay hardened by drying in the sun or burning in a kiln, and used for building, paving, etc.: traditionally, in the United States, a rectangle 2.25 × 3.75 × 8 inches (5.7 × 9.5 × 20.3 centimeters), red, brown, or yellow in color.
A couple of bricks, picked up at a demolition site, made fine bookends.
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blocks of hardened clay collectively as used for building, or the material of which they are made.
The house is made of brick, but the porch is wooden.
Clay brick can be returned to the earth without harm.
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any block or bar having a size and shape similar to that of the small, rectangular block of hardened clay commonly used for building.
He kept a gold brick in his safe.
Let’s buy a brick of ice cream to have with our strawberries.
Agents recovered 58 bricks of cocaine in the raid.
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the length of a brick as a measure of thickness, as of a wall.
one and a half bricks thick.
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Basketball. a missed shot, especially one that hits the rim or backboard badly.
His first two foul shots were bricks, but the third bounced off the backboard and went in.
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Informal.
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an electronic device that has become completely nonfunctional.
As soon as I leave the country, my phone turns into a brick.
A hard enough impact will make your shiny new laptop become a very expensive brick.
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an old, heavy cell phone with limited capability (often used attributively).
My very first cell phone was a Motorola brick.
These brick phones only allowed people to make and receive calls and didn't even store phone numbers.
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Informal: Older Use. an admirably good or generous person.
verb (used with object)
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bricks,
present (3rd person singular)
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bricked,
past participle, past
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bricking
present participle
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to pave, line, wall, fill, or build with brick.
He bricked our driveway and our patio, and did a great job.
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Informal. to cause (an electronic device) to become completely nonfunctional.
I bricked my phone while doing the upgrade.
Who’d have thought that just adding new fonts on a tablet would brick it?
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Basketball. to shoot a ball in such a way that it hits the rim or the backboard badly and does not go into the basket.
She had four shots this period and bricked all but one.
adjective
verb phrase
idioms
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thick as a brick, very stupid or slow-witted.
You’d have to be thick as a brick to fall for such an obvious scam.
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hit the bricks, Sometimes take to the bricks.
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to go out to look for a job, do research, shop for a desired item, etc..
After I was laid off, there was nothing for it but to hit the bricks with copies of my resume.
Fans hit the bricks last week to purchase the latest installment of the video game.
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to go on strike.
With contract talks stalled, workers are threatening to hit the bricks.
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move on; leave; scram.
Security guards told the loiterers to hit the bricks or they’d be charged with trespassing.
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drop a brick, to make a social gaffe or blunder, especially an indiscreet remark.
Whenever the sovereign dropped a brick in public, a functionary would explain that “His Majesty was badly advised.”
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make bricks without straw,
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to perform a task without the necessary resources.
We're doing the best we can in the face of cutbacks, but we can't make bricks without straw.
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to create something that will not last.
To form a government without the consent of the people is to make bricks without straw.
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to plan or act on a false premise or unrealistic basis.
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noun
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a rectangular block of clay mixed with sand and fired in a kiln or baked by the sun, used in building construction
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( as modifier )
a brick house
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the material used to make such blocks
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any rectangular block
a brick of ice
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bricks collectively
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informal a reliable, trustworthy, or helpful person
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a child's building block
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short for brick red
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informal to make a tactless or indiscreet remark
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informal (used esp of the manner of punishing or reprimanding someone) with great force; severely
when he spotted my mistake he came down on me like a ton of bricks
verb
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to construct, line, pave, fill, or wall up with bricks
to brick up a window
brick over a patio
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slang to attack (a person) with a brick or bricks
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bricksimple
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brickssimple
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have brickedperfect
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has brickedperfect
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am brickingprogressive
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are brickingprogressive
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is brickingprogressive
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have been brickingperfect progressive
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has been brickingperfect progressive
Past
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brickedsimple
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had brickedperfect
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was brickingprogressive
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were brickingprogressive
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had been brickingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of brick
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English brike, brik(ke), from Middle Dutch bricke; akin to break
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The future was coming on fast, and it was dumb as a brick.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
The streets are littered with glass and chunks of brick.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
After Vigar's death, a petition calling for a ban on brick walls around football pitches has received more than 4,000 signatures.
From BBC ● Aug. 7, 2026
He tweeted a video that showed an armed man wearing a ski mask and a backpack passing under the brick archway of Nancy’s front porch.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
They were almost at the corner, where the small brick library building was set in the middle of a big green lawn.
From "All About Sam" by Lois Lowry
Rescuers formed human chains to remove bricks and masonry, stopping every few minutes to listen for signs of life from those trapped below.
From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026
Swansea Bay Health Board recommended using stones, bricks or a dedicated stand to prevent heat transferring to the sand.
From BBC ● Aug. 5, 2026
"We knew from the behaviour of the hospital in 2016 - and it's not the hospital, not the bricks and mortar - but the people," he said.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
The smart bricks also detect motion, light up, produce sound effects that change based on play and, in some cases, sense and communicate with other smart bricks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
I winced as one front wheel scraped the wall, tearing out some bricks before I was able to steer in the other direction.
From "City of the Plague God" by Sarwat Chadda
An Australian library has welcomed home a book roughly 150 years overdue after it was discovered inside a tea crate bricked into a sealed fireplace.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2026
Brick has an app, but there’s nothing to do in it except select which apps get bricked and then activate the bricking functionality.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2025
The heist has captivated L.A.’s jewelry industry, whose epicenter is St. Vincent Court, a bricked alley in downtown where jewelers congregate to trade gossip between sips of espresso.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2025
One person said their Charge 5 went "from perfect to non-functional overnight", while another said in a post made on Christmas Day that the update caused their device to be "completely bricked".
From BBC ● Jan. 30, 2024
Though its only window had been bricked in years before, one wall still boasted a hearth big enough to hold a kettle, and there was an actual privy built into a comer nook.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Unless they agreed, users were blocked from access to the Roku menu and apps, essentially bricking their devices.
From New York Times ● Mar. 20, 2024
Is your smartphone inexplicably bricking whenever you try to open your favorite app?
From Scientific American ● Aug. 17, 2023
Three years later he was bricking under pressure again, going two for 13 to send the 2018 Warriors back to the Finals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2023
It is probably still best to leave Watch betas to the brave though — some reports of bricking describe an infinitely spinning loading screen, which this process may not be able to fix.
From The Verge ● Mar. 15, 2022
“He must have told her about the tunnel, because when I went by it this morning, the legionnaires were bricking it closed.”
From "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
