Word.ws English Dictionary

brick

/ˈbɹɪk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

New Zealand/ˈbɹɘk/

brick noun: a hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building.

brick: a hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building
Image: Andrewlister, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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) Such hardened mud, clay, etc. considered collectively, as a building material.
    • This house is made of brick.
    • They gather one by one, trickling into the shady courtyard, the familiar hum of Mass. Ave. wafting in from behind brick buildings and iron gates.2005 June 9, Michael M. Grynbaum, “An Entryway That Eats Together Stays Together”, in The Harvard Crimson, archived from the original on 25 Jan 2025
  3. (countable) Something shaped like a brick.
    • a plastic explosive brick
  4. The colour brick red.
    • The handyman considered the question and I knew she had a brick of ground beans in her bag but was considering whether the beds and a hot drink was worth a brick of coffee.2011, Seth Kenlon, Revolution Radio, page 70
    • He disentangled himself from the safe door and delved inside. He brought out a brick of banknotes.2012, Kevin Sampson, Powder, page 34
  5. (dated, slang) A helpful and reliable person.
    • Thanks for helping me wash the car. You’re a brick.
    • “It's easy to see you're a brick!” replied Lady Augusta, and the laugh again became general.1863, Elizabeth Caroline Grey, Good Society; Or, Contrasts of Character, page 72
  6. (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.
    • See also: put up a brick
    • We can't win if we keep throwing up bricks from three-point land.
  7. (informal) A power brick; an external power supply consisting of a small box with an integral male plug and an attached cord terminating in another plug.
  8. (figuratively, slang) An electronic device, especially a heavy box-shaped one, that has become non-functional or obsolete.
  9. (UK, slang) A projectile.
    • I was on deck watching the firing, and looking at the direction in which our guns were pointing, it was obvious that it was not going to be Centurion who was going to receive our bricks.2019, Daniel Knowles, HMS Hood: Pride of the Royal Navy
  10. A carton of 500 rimfire cartridges, which forms the approximate size and shape of a brick.
  11. (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.
  12. (collectible card games) A card in a player's hand that is currently unplayable.
Show 5 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. (slang) A kilogram of cocaine.
    • I can sell bricks, I don't need to rap / Buj so peng it makes the fiends collapse / Cook that coca into crack / I was selling Zs while you was in your bed2013, Snap Capone, “Lights Out” (0:16 from the start), in The Memoir
  2. (derogatory, offensive, LGBTQ slang) A trans woman who does not pass.
    • Was she like you—a brick, never passed, never gonna?2022, Gretchen Felker-Martin, chapter VI, in Manhunt, page 40
    • In the world of drag, “brick” is a shady word, slang lobbed at queens whose makeup looks busted, whose wardrobes have seen better days, or who are just generally giving hot mess.2023 July 2, Cameron Scheetz, Queerty
    Antonyms:
    fish
  3. (slang, social media) A reel or short video.
    • I built up this feed brick by brick.
    • OK, you can have this brick back, I don't want it
  4. Any member of the species Agrochola circellaris of moths of Europe and Asia Minor.
  5. A brick phone.

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To build, line, or form with bricks.
    • to be bricked alive (as a form of capital punishment)
    • 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 erected1904, Thomas Hansom Cockin, An Elementary Class-Book of Practical Coal-Mining, C. Lockwood and Son, page 78
  2. (transitive) To make into bricks.
    • 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.1904 August 15, James C. Bennett, “Lead Smelting and Refining with Some Notes on Lead Mining”, in Walter Renton Ingalls, editor, The Engineering and Mining Journal, published 1906, page 66
  3. (slang, transitive) To hit someone or something with a brick.
  4. (slang, transitive) To make (an electronic device) non-functional and usually beyond repair, as a result of software or configuration issues.
    • My VCR was bricked during the lightning storm.
    • Just need to project against users from deleting NK.BIN and bricking the device.2002 October 15, Mike Leeson, “How to write protect nk.bin”, in microsoft.public.windowsce.platbuilder (Usenet), retrieved 25 Feb 2016, message-ID <OHm5#hLdCHA.2592@tkmsftngp09>
  5. (intransitive, slang) Of an electronic device, to become non-functional, especially in a way beyond repair, as a result of software or configuration issues.
    • My phone bricked halfway through the videoconference.
    Antonyms:
    unbrick
  6. (intransitive, slang) To blunder; to screw up.

Adjective

brick (not comparable)

  1. (New-York, colloquial, African-American Vernacular) Extremely cold.
    • And while the tropics are definitely the place to be when it's brick outside, rocking a snorkel on the beach only works when you're snorkeling.2005, Vibe, volume 12, number 14, page 102
    • He was always hanging tight with me and since he had access to a ride . . . it made traveling easier. I mean it was no biggie brain buster to take the train, but when it's brick outside . . . fuck the A train.2014, Ray Mack, Underestimated: A Searcher's Story, →ISBN, page 89

Proper noun capitalized: Brick

Brick (countable and uncountable, plural Bricks)

  1. A surname.
  2. A township in Ocean County, New Jersey, United States, named after Joseph Brick.

brick meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

brick in Hindi

hardened block used for building
ईंट ī̃ṭ, ख़िश्त xiśt

brick in Tamil

hardened block used for building
செங்கல் ceṅkal

brick in Marathi

hardened block used for building
वीट vīṭ

brick in Urdu

hardened block used for building
اِین٘ٹ ī̃ṭ, خِشْت xiśt
More languagesFewer languages
brick in Bengali
ইট iṭ
brick in Telugu
ఇటుక iṭuka
brick in Malayalam
ഇഷ്ടിക iṣṭika
brick in Kannada
ಇಟ್ಟಿಗೆ iṭṭige
brick in Punjabi
اٹ īṭṭ, ਇੱਟ iṭṭa
brick in Gujarati
ઈંટ ī̃ṭa
brick in Odia
ଇଟା iṭā
brick in Sanskrit
इष्टका iṣṭakā
brick in Sinhala
ගඩොල් gaḍol
brick in Assamese
ইটা ita
brick in Nepali
इँट्टा ĩṭṭā
brick in Pashto
خښته xᶕx̌ta, آجر ājur
brick in Tagalog
laryo, ladrilyo
brick in Arabic
طُوبَة ṭūba, لَبِنَة labina, قَرْمِيد qarmīd, طَابُوق ṭābūq
brick in Malay
batu bata
brick in Indonesian
merah bata, batu bata, catu daya, mati total
brick in Persian
آجُر ājur, خِشْت xišt
brick in Thai
อิฐ ìt
brick in Vietnamese
gạch
brick in Myanmar
အုတ် ut

Examples of brick in a sentence

  • A few times, when I got tired of my whisky highs and tobacco fumes, I turned to my new little helper, the tiny brick of cannabis resin I got from Don.2021, Stan Erisman, A Sea of Troubles, page 31:
  • 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.1914, The Mining Engineer, Institution of Mining Engineers, page 349:
  • He came in and we went out to the back area I'd bricked amateurishly years ago.2010, Peter Corris, Torn Apart, Allen and Unwin, page 18:
  • installing third-party firmware will void your warranty, and it is possible that you may brick your router.2007 December 14, Joe Barr, “PacketProtector turns SOHO router into security powerhouse”, in Linux.com:

All 40 example sentences with brick

Synonyms of brick

20 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of brick

Forms of brick

Noun
pluralbricks
Verb
third-person singular presentbricks
present participlebricking
past participlebricked
pastbricked
Proper noun
pluralBricks

Plural of brick: bricks

Origin of brick

From Late Middle English brik, bryke, bricke, from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch bricke ("cracked or broken brick; tile-stone"; modern Dutch brik), ultimately related to Proto-West Germanic *brekan (“to break”), whence also Old French briche and French brique (“brick”). Compare also German Low German Brickje (“small board, tray”). Related to break. The social media slang sense derives from memes about building up one's feed “brick by brick”, analogizing bricks with reels that inform the algorithm. The sense of a helpful, reliable person comes from Lycurgus referring to the army as the walls of Sparta, every man a brick.

* As an English surname, from the noun bridge. This aligns more closely with the pronunciation of its ancestors, Middle English brigge, Old English brycg. * As a Polish surname, from Brych, which has the same pronunciation.

Words formed from brick

Phrases with brick

80 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with brick

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about brick

What does brick mean?
Brick means a hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building.
What is brick in Hindi?
Brick in Hindi is ईंट (ī̃ṭ), ख़िश्त (xiśt). See Brick meaning in Hindi.
How do you use brick in a sentence?
A few times, when I got tired of my whisky highs and tobacco fumes, I turned to my new little helper, the tiny brick of cannabis resin I got from Don.
What part of speech is brick?
Brick can be a noun, a verb, an adjective or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce brick?
Brick is pronounced /ˈbɹɪk/.
What is the plural of brick?
The plural of brick is bricks.

Words near brick in the dictionary

  1. Briceni
  2. Briceno
  3. Bricenos
  4. brichka
  5. brichkas
  6. brick
  7. brick and mortar
  8. brick breaker
  9. brick breakers
  10. brick by brick
  11. brick cheese

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brick (page history and authors); Brick (page history and authors); اٹ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-brick.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-brick.wav.

Cite this entry: “brick.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/brick. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.