I. ˈbrik noun
( -s ; see sense 2 )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English bryke, from Middle French brique, from Middle Dutch bricke; akin to Old English brecan to break — more at break
1. : a building or paving material that is made by molding clay into blocks while moist and hardening it sometimes in the sun (as was done extensively in ancient times) but usually today by baking or burning by fire either in a kiln or in clamps and that is ordinarily red in color due to the presence of iron compounds converted by heat into red oxide, a brown or yellow color being obtained by the addition of lime or magnesia to the clay — see sewer brick
2. plural bricks or brick
a. : an individual molded usually rectangular block of brick with average dimensions in America usually of 2 1/4×3 3/4×8 inches
b. : a block of other material (as concrete, sand and lime, or glass) of similar size and shape
c. : brickbat
a small boy throwing bricks at the side of the house
3. : a rectangular usually oblong often compressed mass
a brick of ice cream
a brick of figs
4. slang : a good fellow : one who is especially good-hearted or selfless
the women behaved like bricks and gave up their usual holiday at this time — O.W.Holmes †1935
5. or brick red
a. : a variable color averaging a moderate reddish brown that is redder, lighter, and stronger than mahogany, oxblood, or rustic brown, paler than Tuscan red, redder and deeper than russet tan, and yellower, lighter, and stronger than roan
b. : a moderate brown that is redder, lighter, and stronger than chestnut brown, bay, coffee, or auburn and deeper and slightly redder than toast brown
6. : brick cheese
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
1.
a. : to fill up or close with brick — used with up or in
brick up a doorway
brick in a hole in the sidewalk
b. : to face, pave, or line with brick
a shed bricked only on the front
— often used with over
brick over the front of the house
brick over the inside of the well
c. : to make of brick
bricked the front of the house — Angus Mowat
d. : to enclose, buttress, or make firm with brickwork
brick the shaky trunk of the tree
2. : to give the appearance of brickwork to (as to plaster by marking it off in brick-shaped areas)
after … paint has been applied, guidelines are snapped on regularly over the entire area to be bricked — Herbert Philippi