Skip to the word

Added 9 October 2026

brick

/ˈbɹɪk/ noun

In Latin: later Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about brick at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building.
This wall is made of bricks.
Such hardened mud, clay, etc. considered collectively, as a building material.
This house is made of brick.
Something shaped like a brick.
a plastic explosive brick

verb

To build, line, or form with bricks.
to be bricked alive (as a form of capital punishment)
To make into bricks.
To hit someone or something with a brick.

adjective

Extremely cold.

Origin

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.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

Back to today's word