I. brick 1 S2 W3 /brɪk/ BrE AmE noun
[ Date: 1400-1500 ; Language: French ; Origin: brique , from Middle Dutch bricke ]
1 . [uncountable and countable] a hard block of baked clay used for building walls, houses etc:
a brick wall
a house made of brick
Protesters attacked the police with stones and bricks.
2 . bricks and mortar houses – used especially when talking about them as an ↑ investment
3 . [countable] British English a small square block of wood, plastic etc used as a toy
4 . [countable] old-fashioned a good person who you can depend on when you are in trouble
⇨ be (like) banging/bashing etc your head against a brick wall at ↑ head 1 (31), ⇨ drop a brick at ↑ drop 1 (27)
II. brick 2 BrE AmE verb
be bricking it British English informal to feel very nervous or frightened
brick something ↔ off phrasal verb
to separate an area from a larger area by building a wall of bricks:
Some of the rooms had been bricked off.
brick something ↔ up/in phrasal verb
to fill or close a space by building a wall of bricks in it:
The windows were bricked up.