What does brick mean?
A brick is a small rectangular block, traditionally made of clay that has been shaped and hardened by firing in a kiln, used as one of the most fundamental building units in human construction. Bricks are laid in courses and bonded with mortar to form walls, pavements, chimneys, and entire structures, prized for their durability, insulating properties, and distinctive warm colours ranging from red to yellow and grey. The word also extends beyond masonry: informally, especially in British English, calling someone 'a brick' praises them as a steadfast and generous friend. In modern technology slang, 'bricked' describes an electronic device rendered permanently useless, as inert as its namesake. Common idioms include 'hitting a brick wall', meaning meeting an impenetrable obstacle, and 'bricks and mortar', denoting physical buildings or businesses. Few words so neatly connect ancient craft, everyday architecture, and contemporary digital metaphor.
A rectangular block of fired clay, or of concrete or similar material, used for building walls and other structures.
"The garden wall was built from reclaimed brick."
Countable noun; plural 'bricks'.
(Informal) A person who is kind, loyal, and dependable.
"He stayed up all night helping me move house — what a brick!"
Chiefly British; dated but still understood.
(Informal) To render an electronic device completely inoperable, typically through a failed software update.
"Careless flashing bricked his phone."
Common in computing and gaming contexts.
Regular countable plural; used both literally (building materials) and figuratively.
"The delivery arrived with ten thousand bricks stacked on wooden pallets."
The humble brick is one of humanity's oldest manufactured objects — some fired bricks found in the Middle East are over 7,000 years old, predating the wheel by centuries.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of brick
The English word 'brick' comes from Middle French 'briche', which itself derives from Middle Dutch 'bricke', meaning a broken piece or tile; the sense shifted from a fragment to the moulded building block. It entered English in the early fifteenth century. The Germanic root relates to breaking, connecting it conceptually with fragments of fired clay rather than with Latin 'later' or Greek forms used elsewhere for tile and brick. Cognate forms appear across Dutch and Low German dialects, though no strong modern English cognates share the exact root.
Related word forms
How brick is actually used
As a noun, 'brick' is standard in all registers. The figurative sense meaning a good-hearted, reliable person is chiefly British and informal, often in the phrase 'you're a brick'. The slang verb 'to brick' (rendering a device unusable) is common in technology contexts. In North American informal usage, 'brick' can also describe very cold weather ('it's brick outside'), though this is regional and colloquial.
Easily confused with brick
Brique is the French word for brick, not an English word, though it appears in loan phrases like 'en brique'.