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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

brick.

A hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbɹɪk//ˈbɹɘk/New-Zealand
  1. A hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building.

    countable
    This wall is made of bricks.
  2. Such hardened mud, clay, etc. considered collectively, as a building material.

    uncountable
    This house is made of brick.
  3. Something shaped like a brick.

    countable
    a plastic explosive brick
  4. The colour brick red.

    countable · uncountable
  5. A helpful and reliable person.

    countable · dated · slang · uncountable
    Thanks for helping me wash the car. You’re a brick.
  6. 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.

    countable · slang · uncountable
    We can't win if we keep throwing up bricks from three-point land.
  7. 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.

    countable · informal · uncountable
  8. An electronic device, especially a heavy box-shaped one, that has become non-functional or obsolete.

    countable · figuratively · slang · uncountable
  9. A projectile.

    UK · countable · slang · uncountable
  10. A carton of 500 rimfire cartridges, which forms the approximate size and shape of a brick.

    countable · uncountable
  11. A community card (usually the turn or the river) which does not improve a player's hand.

    countable · slang · uncountable
    The two of clubs was a complete brick on the river.
  12. A card in a player's hand that is currently unplayable.

    countable · uncountable
  13. A kilogram of cocaine.

    countable · slang · uncountable
  14. A trans woman who does not pass.

    countable · derogatory · offensive · uncountable
  15. A reel or short video.

    countable · slang · uncountable
    I built up this feed brick by brick.
    OK, you can have this brick back, I don't want it
  16. Any member of the species Agrochola circellaris of moths of Europe and Asia Minor.

    countable · uncountable
  17. A brick phone.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

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.

verb/ˈbɹɪk//ˈbɹɘk/New-Zealand
  1. To build, line, or form with bricks.

    transitive
    to be bricked alive (as a form of capital punishment)
  2. To make into bricks.

    transitive
  3. To hit someone or something with a brick.

    slang · transitive
  4. To make (an electronic device) non-functional and usually beyond repair, as a result of software or configuration issues.

    slang · transitive
    My VCR was bricked during the lightning storm.
  5. Of an electronic device, to become non-functional, especially in a way beyond repair, as a result of software or configuration issues.

    intransitive · slang
    My phone bricked halfway through the videoconference.
  6. To blunder; to screw up.

    intransitive · slang
Where this word comes from

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.

adj/ˈbɹɪk//ˈbɹɘk/New-Zealand
  1. Extremely cold.

    New-York · colloquial · not-comparable
Where this word comes from

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.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.