brick

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“
On 13th November, however, Miss Turner, looking out of a window, spotted Emma throwing a brick, and pretending that the flight of the brick was automatic.

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Definitions (65)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun A molded rectangular block of clay baked by the sun or in a kiln until hard and used as a building and paving material.
  2. noun An object shaped like such a block: a brick of cheese.
  3. noun Informal A helpful, reliable person.
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Examples (50)

  • Rune got up on her knees and looked for a brick, a rock, a stick. —  Death of a Blue Movie Star
  • It stood square and dignified in Georgian brick, the dark red flush of Virginia creeper still clinging to the side that caught the sun. —  The Case is Closed - Patricia Wentworth - Miss Silver 02: 1937
  • Enough rainwater had been absorbed into the brick--brick is more porous than you might think--that it simply blasted the brick apart And the ivy That's a little more complicated. —  AnalogSFF,March2006
  • And another brick was added to the rising edifice of Thatcherism. —  Politics news, UK and world political comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk
  • And they were better at coming up with creative but not impossible uses for a brick -- such as using it as a scratching post for animals -- when they were in blue screen saver mode. —  Medlogs - Recent stories
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Etymologies (6)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English brike, from Middle Dutch bricke.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (5)

  1. English dial. and Scots, from Middle English brike, bryke, unassibilated form of *bryche, bruche, from Anglo-Saxon brice, bryce, a breach, break, fracture, a piece, fragment: see breck and breach, of which brick is a dial. variant: see also brack. Cf. brick.
  2. English dial., variant of break; cf. brick, n.
  3. Early modern English also bricke, brique; from Middle English bryke, later brique, after Old French brique, a brick, a plate, leaf or wedge of metal, modern F. brique (cf. modern Italian bricco, Irish Gaelic brice, from English), a brick; apparently from Middle Dutch (Flemish) bricke, brijke, a tile, brick, bricke, a disk, plate, = Middle Low German bricke, a disk, plate, piece in checkers, chess, or backgammon, name of a game played on ice, = German bricke, a small board, a round wooden plate, = Swedish bricka, a piece in checkers, etc., = Old Danish bricke, brikke, Danish brik, brikke, a wooden plate, a blank (coin), a piece in checkers, etc.; cf. Old Danish *brīk, partition, in comp. brīks-dör, the door between the choir and the body of a church (dör = English door), = Norwegian brik (brīk), a short table or bench near the door or fireplace, a bar, railing, low wall or partition of boards, = Icelandic brīk, a low wall or partition of boards, a square tablet, a tablet or panel in a bedstead, etc. The F. brique, a brick, is usually explained as a particular use of Old French and French dial. brique, a piece, fragment, this being referred to the Anglo-Saxon brice, bryce, a piece, fragment (cf. French dial. brique du pain, equivalent to Anglo-Saxon hlāfes brice, a piece of bread); but neither of the two Teutonic forms, Icelandic brīk (with long vowel), a tablet, etc., Middle Dutch brijke (with long vowel), Middle Dutch Middle Low German bricke (with short vowel), a brick, tile, plate, etc., agrees in sense or form with the Anglo-Saxon brice, bryce, a piece, fragment, and its cognates, nor can either be brought into connection with the primitive verb of the latter (Icelandic breka = Middle Dutch Middle Low German breken = Anglo-Saxon brecan, English break), except perhaps through the medium of the Old French But the sense of ‘brick,’ which does not belong to the Anglo-Saxon, G., and Scandinavian forms, is a derived one; cf. the explanatory synonyms brickstone, bricktile. The Middle Dutch and Middle Low German cognates of the Anglo-Saxon brice, bryce (English breach, dial. brick, breck, q. v.) are different: see breach. Cf. Middle Low German bricke, Low German prikke = Middle Dutch prick, Dutch prik = late Middle High German pryecke, prycke, German bricke, pricke = Old Danish bricke, a lamprey; apparently a different word.
  4. from brick, n.
  5. The origin is uncertain. Usually referred to brick, various stories being invented in explanation. According to one account, the expression arose in the English universities as a humorous translation of Aristotle's τετράγωνος ἁνήρ, a perfect (literally ‘square’ or rectangular) man: see tetragon and square.
 

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/brɪk/
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