Word.ws English Dictionary

put up a brick

put up a brick verb: taking a bad shot that strongly misses the target and clanks loudly off the rim or backboard.

Verb

put up a brick (third-person singular simple present puts up a brick, present participle putting up a brick, simple past and past participle put up a brick)

  1. (idiomatic, slang) Taking a bad shot that strongly misses the target and clanks loudly off the rim or backboard.

Synonyms of put up a brick

Forms of put up a brick

third-person singular presentputs up a brick
present participleputting up a brick
past participleput up a brick
pastput up a brick

Origin of put up a brick

Implies the basketball is as heavy and stiff as a literal building brick instead of having a soft, clean arc.

Questions about put up a brick

What does put up a brick mean?
Put up a brick means taking a bad shot that strongly misses the target and clanks loudly off the rim or backboard.
What part of speech is put up a brick?
Put up a brick is a verb.
What is the past tense of put up a brick?
The past tense of put up a brick is put up a brick.

Words near put up a brick in the dictionary

  1. put two and two together and made five
  2. put two and two together and make five
  3. put two fingers up
  4. put under
  5. put up
  6. put up a brick
  7. put up a fight
  8. put up a show
  9. put up on
  10. put up one's dukes
  11. put up one's hand

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: put up a brick (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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