Word.ws English Dictionary

brickbat

Syllables: brick·bat/ˈbɹɪkbæt/US/ˈbɹɪkˌbæt/

brickbat noun: a piece of brick, rock, etc., especially when used as a weapon (for example, thrown or placed in a sock or other receptacle and used as a club).

brickbat: a piece of brick, rock, etc., especially when used as a weapon (for example, thrown or placed in a...
Image: darkday from Brisbane, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

brickbat (plural brickbats)

  1. A piece of brick, rock, etc., especially when used as a weapon (for example, thrown or placed in a sock or other receptacle and used as a club).
    • [S]he sēt [sent] a brick back after him & hit him on þᵉ back, […][1563 March 30 (Gregorian calendar), John Foxe, “George Tākerfield [Tankerfield] a Faythful Martyr and Witnes of the Gospel, Constantly Suffering for the Testimonie of the Same”, in Actes and...
    • [Y]ᵉ body of King Charles the First was privately putt into the Sand about White-hall; and the coffin that was carried to Windsor and layd in K. Hen[ry] 8^(th's) vault was filled with rubbish, or brick-batts.1687 February, John Aubrey, “Lotts”, in James Britten, editor, Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme, London: [F]or The Folk-lore Society by W. Satchell, Peyton, and Co., […], published 1881, →OCLC...
  2. (figuratively) A piece of (sharp) criticism or a (highly) uncomplimentary remark.
    • I beſeech ye friends, ere the brickbats flye, reſolve me and your ſelves, is it blasphemy, or any vvhit diſagreeing from Chriſtian meekneſſe, […] for me to anſvver a ſlovenly vvincer of a confutation, that, if he vvould needs put his foot to ſuch a ſvveaty ſervice, the odour of his Sock vvas like...1642 April, John Milton, An Apology for Smectymnuus; republished in A Complete Collection of the Historical, Political, and Miscellaneous Works of John Milton, […], volume I, Amsterdam [actually...
    • Not honoured, hardly even envied; only fools and the flunkey-species so much as envy me. I am conspicuous,—as a mark for curses and brickbats. What good is it?1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “The Didactic”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book IV (Horoscope), pages 292–293
    Antonyms:
    bouquet

Verb

brickbat (third-person singular simple present brickbats, present participle brickbatting, simple past and past participle brickbatted)

  1. (transitive) To attack (someone or something) by swinging or throwing brickbats (noun sense 1).
    • We had two boys arrested, both colored, for brick-batting a colored woman in her house. They were sent to the chaingang for 12 months each.1904, “Crime in Georgia”, in W[illiam] E[dward] Burghardt Du Bois, editor, Some Notes on Negro Crime, Particularly in Georgia […] (The Atlanta University Publications; 9), Atlanta, Ga.: Atlanta...
  2. (figuratively, transitive) To assail (someone or something) with (sharp) criticism.

brickbat meaning in Vietnamese

brickbat in Vietnamese

to assail (someone or something) with (sharp) criticism
búa rìu dư luận

Examples of brickbat in a sentence

  • Fragments of glass kept company with the dust on the floor, together with a choice collection of stones, brickbats, and other missiles,—which not improbably were the cause of their being there.1897 March 13 – June 19, Richard Marsh [pseudonym; Richard Bernard Heldmann], “What was Hidden under the Floor”, in The Beetle (The Adelphi...
  • This arrangement has assured Mr Singh many brickbats, and little freedom to dodge.2008 June 26, “Manmohan Singh’s burning ambition”, in The Economist, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original...
  • A broken bone heals far more quickly and durably than the emotional and psychic injuries inflicted by a savage word, which is where the brickbat derives its power.2020 February 7, Shashi Tharoor, “Shashi Tharoor’s Word of the Week: Brickbat”, in Hindustan Times, New Delhi: HT Media, →ISSN, →OCLC...

Antonyms of brickbat

Forms of brickbat

Noun
pluralbrickbats
Verb
third-person singular presentbrickbats
present participlebrickbatting
past participlebrickbatted
pastbrickbatted

Origin of brickbat

The noun is derived from brick + bat (“a bit, piece; specifically, part of a brick with one whole end”). The verb is derived from the noun.

Words formed from brickbat

Questions about brickbat

What does brickbat mean?
Brickbat means a piece of brick, rock, etc., especially when used as a weapon (for example, thrown or placed in a sock or other receptacle and used as a club).
What is brickbat in Vietnamese?
Brickbat in Vietnamese is búa rìu dư luận. See Brickbat meaning in Vietnamese.
How do you use brickbat in a sentence?
Fragments of glass kept company with the dust on the floor, together with a choice collection of stones, brickbats, and other missiles,—which not improbably were the cause of their being there.
What part of speech is brickbat?
Brickbat can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce brickbat?
Brickbat is pronounced /ˈbɹɪkbæt/ (UK).
What is the plural of brickbat?
The plural of brickbat is brickbats.

Words near brickbat in the dictionary

  1. brick-tea
  2. brick-wall limiter
  3. brick-wall limiters
  4. brickable
  5. Brickaville
  6. brickbat
  7. brickbats
  8. brickbatted
  9. brickbatting
  10. brickbattings
  11. brickclay

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: brickbat (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.

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

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