brick
Americannoun
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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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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:
Far easier to build the observatory of brick and to spray it with stucco, approximating concrete’s smooth contours.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
He was an accomplished artist, inventor and entrepreneur and the accidental inventor of the modern blast-furnace brick.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
The prosecutor's office is already investigating a criminal complaint regarding the 958,000-euro renovation of the tower's surrounding 700-metre wall, for which workers were painting a brick-effect concrete facade instead of laying brick cladding.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
The brick abode features five bedrooms across 6,516 square feet on over 6 acres.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
In the winter, the long brick wall on the bedroom side warmed the whole room nicely.
From Anya and the Dragon by Sofiya Pasternack
Lego strikes back against screens—with chips in bricks.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 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
He built the sets excitedly and diligently charged his smart bricks overnight, waking up early to play with them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 18, 2026
She said: "One day I just researched it and found out there wasn't a single bricks and mortar one in the entire UK and thought, 'that's crazy. That needs to change'."
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
She’s the most positive person in the world, and amazing and fun to be around, but in a strange and happy way sometimes she seems to be about nine bricks shy of a full load.
From "Lawn Boy" by Gary Paulsen
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
Users affected by issues with the device have speculated that a faulty update from Sky could be the cause of "bricked" TVs.
From BBC ● Sep. 20, 2024
Over the years these incumbents have successfully bricked themselves off from domestic and especially foreign competition.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 15, 2022
Davis then bricked two free throws, echoing his miss on a potential winning free throw with 3.7 seconds left in regulation of what became an overtime loss for the Lakers at Philadelphia last Friday.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 13, 2022
The blocks are bricked off into what we call the Boardwalk.
From "All The Bright Places" by Jennifer Niven
During this summer of bricking, a few thoughts refused to leave me.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2025
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
Now, Amazon is following a well-established pattern of companies bricking smart home hardware because they no longer want to support its ecosystem.
From The Verge ● May 30, 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.
