▪ I.brick,n.¹|brɪk|Forms: 5 breke, (pl.) brikkes, 5–6 bryke, 6 brike, brikke, bryk, bryck(e, 6–7 bricke, 6– brick.[Found only since the middle of the 15th c.; not in the Promptorium 1440, or Catholicon 1483:prob.a. F. brique, inOF.also briche; quoted by Godefroy 1264 (briche) and 1457 (brique) in sense of ‘a form of loaf’, and also inOF.in sense of ‘broken piece, fragment, bit’, and reinforcing a negative in sense ‘not a bit’. Still in Burgundian and Hainaultdial., in sense ‘piece’, brique de pain ‘piece of bread’, in Swiss Romance ‘piece, bit, débris’,mod.Pr.briga ‘débris’. It would appear therefore that theOF.word was derived in some way from the Teutonic verb brek-an to break (cf.F. brèche,ONF.breke, breque breaking, breach), and that its original sense was ‘broken piece’, which passed through the general sense ‘piece, bit’, or the specific sense ‘piece of bread as baked, loaf’, to that of ‘piece of baked clay’. In French une brique, the shaped object, would thus be earlier than la brique, the substance; but in English the earliest examples yet found are of the substance.]I.1.A substance formed of clay, kneaded, moulded, and hardened by baking with fire, or in warm countries and ancient times by drying in the sun; used instead of stone as a building material.c1440[See brick walln.¹ 1.]1465Mann. &Househ.Exp. 301,I did rekene wethe heme that makethe my breke.1467Ord.Worcester in Eng.Gilds (1870) 372That no chimneys of tre..be suffred..but that the owners make hem of bryke or stone.1535CoverdaleGen.xi. 3Come on, let vs make bryck & burne it. And they toke bryck for stone.c1543W. Cleve inDom.Archit.III. 79With closer of brike toured aboute your gardein.1603Shakes.Meas.for M. iv. i. 28Garden circummur'd with Bricke.1776GibbonDecl. & F. I. 44Augustus was accustomed to boast that he had found his capital of brick, and that he had left it of marble.1788H. Walpole inWalpoliana xiv. 8The ruin in Kew Gardens is built with act-of-parliament brick.1846McCullochAcc.Brit.Empire (1854) I. 623By far the greater number of houses in London..are built of brick.2.A block of this substance, or of sand and lime, concrete, and other materials, made of a definite size and shape, as an individual object; ordinarily rectangular, but also of other shapes for special purposes. (In 16th c. thepl.was often brick.)c1525Surv.Yorksh.Monast. in Yorkshire Archæol.Jrnl.(1886) IX. 329A litle house..coueryd wttyle, wta chymney of brikkes.1535CoverdaleEx. v. 8The nombre of the brycke which they made.1611BibleGen.xi. 3Goe to, let vs make bricke, and burne them thorowly.―Ex. vi. 18Yet shall ye deliuer the tale of brickes.1651Proc.Parl.No.123. 1902Our Landlords..have exacted the full taile of the Bricks, when the ground produced no straw.1677A. YarrantonEngl.Improv. 136Six hundred thousand of Bricks builds a Granary, Two Brick and half thick.1724Ord.Tilers' & Brickl.Comp.in Lond.Gaz.No.6251/3Every Brick is to be 9 Inches in Length, 4 Inches and a Quarter of an Inch in Breadth, and 2 Inches and a Quarter of an Inch in Thickness.1823P. NicholsonPract.Build.345Called Fire-Bricks, because of their enduring the fire.1840MarryatOlla Podr. (Rtldg.) 256We cannot put on a heavy roof with a brick-and-a-half wall.1850LayardNineveh xiii. 342Squares which when dried by the heat of the sun served them for bricks.1875,1879Slag-brick[see slagn.¹ 6 a].1922D. M. LiddellHandbk.Chem.Engin.II. 948At present bricks made from sand and lime are extensively used, while they have been used in Europe for 50 years.3.A loaf shaped like a brick. Often applied to a ‘tin-loaf’, but the local uses vary.[Cf.theOFr.andFr.dial.uses referred to above.]1735ByromRem. (1855) I. ii. 615Breakfasted upon a penny brick and tea with sugar, and ate all the brick very near.1822W. KitchinerCook'sOrac.App.508Put a quartern of Flour into a large Basin..knead it again, and it is ready either for Loaves or Bricks.1857E. ActonEng.Bread-Bk. ii. iv. 184The loaves technically called ‘bricks’, which are baked in tins.1847–78Halliwell,Brick, a kind of loaf. var.dial.1875UreDict.Arts I. 477The loaves known under the names of bricks, Coburg, cottage, and French rolls, being all made of the same dough.4.transf.a.A brick-shaped block of any substance,e.g.of tea(seebrick-tea in 10); of wood, for a child to play with; of ice-cream; also in other more consciously figurative uses. box of bricks: a box of wooden blocks for a child to build with.1827H. E. LloydTimkowski'sTrav.II. 315A good horse was in our presence sold for about sixty bricks of tea.1832F. TrollopeDom. MannersAmer.I. xix. 301A numerous collection of large wooden bricks.1861C. M. YongeYoung Step-Mother xxix. 434He..built up a tower with her wooden bricks.1871TyndallFragm.Sc.(ed.6) I. xii. 358In building up crystals these little atomic bricks often arrange themselves into layers.1875UreDict.Arts II. 507Patent fuel..small coal and pitch, moulded together into bricks by pressure.1884GilmourMongols 143Buyers..conspicuous from the clumsy bricks of tea which they carried.1885StevensonDynamiter 191‘You see this brick?’..lifting a cake of the infernal compound[dynamite]from the laboratory-table.1922S. LewisBabbitt ix. 123He gulped down a chill and glutinous slice of the ice-cream brick.1938R. W. Lawsontr.Hevesy & Paneth'sMan.Radioactivity (ed.2) ix. 94The α-particles..are not the ultimate bricks of which the nucleus is composed.1939L. MacNeiceAutumnJrnl.xix. 76Baby Croesus crawls in a pen With alphabetical bricks.1959I. & P. OpieLore &Lang.Schoolch. ix. 165Cornet, Brick, and Lollipop Taste very nice when bought from the shop.1964F. L. WestwaterElectronic Computers iii. 49Only a limited number of electronic ‘bricks’, as they are called, are used. These bricks, which are circuit elements, have been thoroughly tested beforehand.b.brick couching, in embroidery, couching in which the laid threads or cords are secured by cross stitches resembling, in their arrangement, the vertical joints of brickwork. Hence in bricks, in divisions resembling bricks.Cf.brick-stitch (sense 10 below).1882Caulfeild & SawardDict.Needlew. 180/1The chief varieties of Flat Couching are Brick, Broad, Burden, Diagonal, and Diamond.1911A. DrydenChurch Embroid. 112The commonest form of stitching the gold is in bricks, each couching-stitch being in between the two stitches of the preceding line.c.The colour of brick; brick-red.[1856M. N. ThomsonElephant Club 163A[red]head of hair which the youth of America are accustomed to designate as a ‘brick-top’.]1897Sears, RoebuckCatal.21/3Send for illustrated color card..Pink—Milwaukee Brick—Quaker Drab.[1912Dialect Notes III. 572Brick-topped, red-headed.]1922JoyceUlysses 48A dull brick muffler strangling his unshaven neck.1923Daily Mail 16 Jan. 1Blanket Cloth Magyar Wrap Coats... Cream, Beaver, Mole, Nigger, Brick.5. a.Phrase like bricks, like a brick: with a vengeance, vigorously, with good will: occasionally with a clear reference to the crash with which a quantity of bricks fall, but usually only as an expression of eulogy, as in sense 6. Also (orig.U.S.), like a thousand (occas.hundred) of brick(s); like a ton of bricks: see come v. 56 g.1836DickensSk.by Boz, Lost Cab-driver,Out flies the fare like bricks.1836HillYankee Stories 32(Weingarten Suppl.Notes toD.A.E.), If I don't be into him with a thousand of brick.1840‘Samuel Slick’ClockmakerSer.iii. 50If I don't pitch into Ben Parsons' ribs like a tousand of bricks.1841Picayune (New Orleans) 16 Mar. 2/2They..rounded the first turn pretty much in a heap like a thousand of brick.1853E. ForbesLet.in Geikie Life xiv. 509Gibbs has worked like a brick.1856KingsleyLet.May,You fellows worked like bricks.1856F. PagetOwlet Owlst. 139She sits her horse as if she was part of him..hunts like..a brick.1860Picayune 27 Apr. (De Vere),He fell upon us like a thousand of bricks.1886R. BrownSpunyarn & Spindrift vii. 123The people at the Admiralty will be down on you like a hundred of bricks.1896C. JamesYoke of Freedom 161Once let a man play me false, I'm down on him like a hundred of bricks.1911A. BennettHilda Lessways iii. ii. 226,I had the whole gang down on me instantly like a thousand of bricks.1929W. S. MaughamWriter's Notebk. (1949) 228I'd have had the whole community down on me like a ton o' bricks.1967E. GriersonCrime of one's Own xii. 98The..gentleman..made his living by selling books, and not those sort of books either, or the Super would have been down on the place long since like a ton of bricks.b.Slangphr.(orig.U.S.), to have (or wear) a brick in one's hat: to be under the influence of liquor.1847Knickerbocker XXIX. 569A youth who came home one night..having ‘a brick in his hat’.1848Durivage & BurnhamStray Subjects 61He wore a ‘brick’ within that hat.1849[see hatn.5 c].1889Barrère & LelandDict.Slang I. 180/1Brick in the hat (common), intoxicated, top-heavy.c.to drop a brick: to commit a verbal indiscretion, make a ‘bloomer’. colloq.1923Punch 3 Oct. 334It was hinted to me pretty plainly that I had dropped a brick, as you say.1924GalsworthyWhite Monkey iii. xii,I've got to keep my head shut, or I shall be dropping a brick.1928‘Sapper’Female of Species xvii. 307The stones of Stonehenge are little pebbles compared to the bricks you dropped, but I forgive you.6.fig.(slang or colloq.) A good fellow, one whom one approves for his genuine good qualities.1840BarhamIngol.Leg., Bros. Birchington xiii,I don't stick to declare Father Dick..was a Regular Brick.1857HughesTom Brown vii. (1871) 151What a brick not to give us even twenty lines to learn.1864C. M. YongeC'tess Kate xii. (ed.2) 213‘She's run away, like a jolly brick!’1870M. BridgmanR. Lynne I. xviii. 318She believed Robert was no end of a brick.7.‘Bricks, or Briques, in Heraldry, are figures or bearings in arms, resembling a building of bricks’ (Chambers Cycl.Supp. 1753).II.attrib.and Comb.8.simpleattrib.or adj.a.Of brick. Similarly brick-and-mortar, etc.: see also mortarn.² a (quots.1863 and 1895).b.In the shape of a brick.c1440[See brick walln.¹ 1.]1591SpenserBellay's Vis. ii,Nor brick nor marble was the wall.1677MoxonMech.Exerc.(1703) 129Stone, or Brick Houses.1753ChambersCycl.Supp.s.v.Brick,Some also mention brick-tin, a sort of tin in that shape brought from Germany; and brick-soap, made in oblong pieces.1851HelpsFriends in C. I. 4Red brick houses, with poplars coming up amongst them.1865M. ArnoldEss.Crit.iv. 138Margate, that brick-and-mortar image of English Protestantism.1884Littell's Living Age CLXI. 88A..brick-and-stone erection.9.General comb.:a.attrib., as brick-cart, brick-clamp, brick-colour, brick-furnace, brick-machine, brick-mason, brick-mould, brick-pit, brick-stack, brick-trowel, brick-truck.b.objective, as brick-moulder.c.instrumental or parasynthetic, formingadjs., as brick-bound, brick-built, brick-coloured, brick-floored, brick-fronted, brick-hemmed, brick-paved, brick-walled; also brick-buildingvbl.n.1881J. HawthorneFort. Fool i. xviii,The trim and *brick-bound conventionality of the London mansion.1631WeeverAnc.Fun. Mon. 230All the *bricke-building was done at his charges.a1845HoodTurtles iv,Before a lofty *brick-built pile Sir Peter stopp'd.1663GerbierCounsel 46He must not suffer *Brick-carts to overturne the load of Bricks.1598FlorioWorlde of Wordes 149/2Gioggiolino, a kinde of colour which we call flesh-colour, or *brickcolour.1818W. TuckerFam.Dyer & Scourer (ed.2) 53To make a Brown inclining to a Brick Colour.1708Lond.Gaz.No.4416/4[He]had on a *Brick-colour'd Coat.1898M. A. von ArnimEliz.& German Garden 10,I used to..go..slowly across the *brick-floored hall.1605Leverton (Lincoln) Ch.-WardensAcc.(MS.) 84 b,Pd. to Thoms. Jenkinson *brickmayson for vj daies whitteninge of the Churche..vijs.1858GlennyGard.Every-dayBk.251Whatever there is no room for in the Greenhouse must be consigned to the *brick-pits.1899Westm.Gaz.7 Jan. 5/1A *brick-stack, 60 ft. in height, fell, crashing on to the sheds.1915Times 15 Apr. 4/1A severe bombardment of the ‘brickstacks’ and the enemy's trenches.1677MoxonMech.Exerc.(1703) 245A *Brick Trowel.1823P. NicholsonPract.Build.384The Brick-trowel is used for spreading mortar, and likewise for cutting bricks.1647R. StapyltonJuvenal 184*Brick-wall'd Babilon.10.Special comb.: brick-ax(e, a double-headed axe with chisel-shaped blades, used by bricklayers; brick-barred a., inlaid (as a floor) with rows of bricks; brick-box, a ‘box of bricks’(see4); brick-bread (cf.brick-loaf); brick-burner, one who attends to a brick-kiln, a brick-maker; brick-clay, clay for making bricks; in Geol.a fine species of clay found lying upon boulder-clay; brick-dryer, an oven for drying bricks before burning; brick-end, a broken piece or fragment of brick; brick-loaf, a loaf shaped like a rectangular brick(see3); brick-nog, -nogging, a method of building in which a timber framework is filled in with brickwork; brick-oil, an old drug compounded of powdered brick and linseed oil; brick-on-edge a., designating a construction built of bricks laid on their sides; brick-pond U.S., a pond in a brickfield; brick-press, a machine for pressing and consolidating the moulded clay; brick-stitch=brick couching(see4 b above); †brickstone, a brick; brick-tea, tea leaves pressed into the shape of a small brick, in which form it is imported into Russia, and also used as a medium of exchange in Mongolia; brick-trimmer, an arch or ‘trimmer’ of brickwork for receiving the hearth of a fire-place; brickyard, a place where bricks are made, a brickfield. Also brickfield, -kiln, -layer, etc.1548–62NorfolkAntiq.Misc.(1880) II. 10A *brykaxe, a hamerax, a trowell, and a pykax.1823P. NicholsonPract.Build.389The Brick-axe is used for..cutting off the soffits of bricks.1885(title)First lessons in arithmetic, by means of *brick-box.1762Boston Selectmen's Minutes (1887) 29 Nov.,A 4d. loaf of *brick bread is 3 oz. less than a 4d. white loaf.c1500Cocke Lorelles B. (1843) 10Bewardes, *brycke borners, and canel rakers.1703Art's Improv. p. xiv,Statute Laws yet in force, for the regulating of the Trades of Brick-Burners, etc.1837PennyCycl.VII. 245/2*Brick clay..lies in abundance upon the London clay.1868B. J. LossingHudson 206Its banks yield some of the finest brick-clay in the country.1527MS.Acc.S. John'sHosp.,Canterb.,A lode of *brykendis xiiijd.1858Chamb.Jrnl.IX. 147Enthroned on brick ends and pieces of stone.1723J. NottCook's & Confectioner'sDict.No.7 E,'Till you have made it in the form of a *Brick-loaf.1873Mrs. WhitneyOther Girls iii. (1876) 30A brick loaf..always seemed to me a man's perversion of the idea of bread.1825CobbettRur. Rides 86The labourers' dwellings..are made of what they call *brick-nog.1857TurnerDom.Archit.III. ii. vii. 278An old house of timber and brick-nogging.1875UreDict.Arts I. 533*Brick oil..is a relic of old pharmacy.1851B'ham & Midl. Gardeners'Mag.Dec. 220,I should recommend a *brick-on-edge wall being run up.1811Massachusetts Spy 9 Jan. 3/3Two boys..were..drowned in a *brick pond in the vicinity of the city[sc. Philadelphia].1894Naturalist Feb. 56Myriophyllum alterniflorum. Blythe Nook brickponds.1872A. MercierOur Mother Church xvi. 348The edge is done in ‘*brick’ stitch, which can be easily worked by looking at the pattern.1882Caulfeild & SawardDict.Needleworks.v.,Brick stitch was largely used as backgrounds in ancient embroideries.1960B. L. SnookEnglishHist.Embroidery 32Split stitch was still used..accompanied by laid-work, couching, brick stitch, satin stitch and long and short stitch.1560WhitehorneCertayne Wayes (1573) 44 a,Taking it out, you shal see it made like unto a *bricke⁓stone.1827H. E. LloydTimkowski'sTrav.I. 36The dry, dirty, and damaged leaves and stalks of the tea are..mixed with a glutinous substance, pressed into moulds, and dried in ovens. These blocks are called..on account of their shape, *brick tea.1852Sinnetttr.Huc's Journ. Tartary 18To boil some Mongol tea—the well-known brick tea, boiled with salt.1872OliverElem.Bot.ii. 147‘Brick Tea’, used in Central Asia, is made from common kinds and refuse, mixed with bullock's blood, pressed and dried in moulds.1864Leeds Mercury 20 Sept.,He went to work at a *brick yard.1884Pall Mall G. 8 Apr. 11/2He has succeeded in emancipating..little brickyard children from a regular Egyptian bondage.▸ slang. built like a brick shithousen.and variants.a.orig.U.S.Chiefly of a man: having an extremely solid physique; with a very robust and powerful build. In Brit.use, derogatory when used of a woman.Occas.(in senses 4a and 4b) abbreviated to brick shithouse, etc., denoting a person of this build.In earlier use a number of different buildings are used in analogy. Later, once the form brick shithouse became standard, variants are usually euphemistic.[1903A. H. LewisBoss xiv. 183That'll be enough to give us th'Tammany bunch as solid as a brick switch shanty.]1922J. TullyEmmett Lawler 286Every time I fight him my hands are swollen for a week. He's built like a brick schoolhouse.1936J. TullyBruiser 58He's built like a brick barn.1949E. BirneyTurvey 127Built like brick shathouses they was too.1954L. ArmstrongSatchmo viii. 126He was a short, jet-black guy, built like a brick house.1991J. PhillipsYou'll never eat Lunch in this Town Again 269The driver is a hostile brick shithouse who favors flannel and does not understand the vicissitudes of a woman producing a movie with her daughter and her daughter's nanny in tow.2001SportsIllustr.15 Jan. 77/2‘I got this one: six-foot-seven and built like a brick s—house.’ He hooks a thumb at his towering 17-year-old son.b.U.S.Alsofreq.in form built like a brick house. Of a woman: having a curvaceous figure,esp.slim with large, prominent breasts. Also of a woman's figure.1933J. ConroyDisinherited ii. 91Wilma's a baby doll, build like a brick outhouse.1964R. F. MirvishThere you Are 222The Sicilian babe... Small, stacked like a brick shithouse.1981Washington Post (Nexis) 29 June b1Some of the Silver Slipper's patrons wondered what on earth machines could construct that would be an improvement over women who were built like ‘brick houses’, as one patron described them, live and on stage, with and without g-strings, sequins and feather boas.1999NewEng.Rev.Spring 139Detective Flynn..has trouble concentrating on anything besides Goity's sumptuous bust... Built like a brick shithouse, he thinks, becoming momentarily aware of his carotid artery thrumming against his shirt collar.▸ brick housen.shortened U.S.slang a woman with a curvaceous figure,esp.slim with large, prominent breasts.1977L. Richie et al.Brick House (song,perf.‘The Commodores’) 1That lady's stacked and that's a fact... Thirty six, twenty four, thirty six Oh, what a winning hand, 'cause she's a *brick house.1992Classic Images Dec. 25 (advt.)A brickhouse sex kitten makes the move on everyone from young studs to old men.2001Rolling Stone 24 May 58/4‘There's a lot of days that I wake up, and I hate how I look.’.. ‘Oh, hush, Beyoncé,’ says Kelly. ‘She a brick house.’▪ II.†brick,n.² Obs.‘The name of a sort of lamprey{ddd}distinguished{ddd}by having a number of black transverse spots, very narrow and long’ (Chambers Cycl.Supp. 1753).▪ III.brick,v.|brɪk|[f.brickn.¹]Mostly in comb. with advbs.1.to brick up: to build or close up with brickwork.1648Bury Wills (1850) 211,I desire that the passage into the vault be bricked and filled up.1691LuttrellBriefRel.(1857) II. 259Orders for bricking up their little gate leading into Whitefryers.1794BurkeImp. W. HastingsWks.XV. 414Very great sums of money are bricked up and kept in vaults.1868E. EdwardsRalegh I. i. 9They have bricked up the lower part of the..window.2.to brick over: to cover with brick.a1845HoodTown & Count. xiv,See Hatton's Gardens bricked all o'er.1863BrowningBp.orders Tomb,Bricked o'er with beggar's mouldy travertine.3.To line, face, or pave with brick; to imitate brickwork on a plaster surface by lining and colouring.1825Mrs. SherwoodOld Times ii. in Houlston Tracts I. xxiv. 7They are now bricked in the front.1830D'IsraeliChas.I, III. vi. 107The decent appearance of bricking their[house]fronts.4.intr.To work with (load, make, etc.) bricks.1884Pall Mall G. 10 Sept. 7/2Another man..was bricking at a vessel close by.5.U.S.slang. (Seequot.)1863DailyTel.Aug. (Amer.Corresp.)Another favourite punishment..was that of ‘bricking’, which was done by bringing the knees close up to the chin and lashing the arms tightly to the knees.