often attributive
1
plural bricks or brick
: a handy-sized unit of building or paving material typically being rectangular and about 2¹/₄ × 3³/₄ × 8 inches (57 × 95 × 203 millimeters) and made of moist clay hardened by heat
2
: a good-hearted person
3
: a rectangular compressed mass (as of ice cream)
4
: a semisoft cheese with numerous small holes, smooth texture, and often mild flavor
6
: a badly missed shot in basketball
he threw up a brick
bricked; bricking; bricks
1
: to close, face, or pave with bricks
—usually used with up, in, or over
brick up a doorway
brick over an opening
2
: to render (an electronic device, such as a smartphone) nonfunctional (as by accidental damage, malicious hacking, or software changes)
… those who dared hack the phone to add features … risked having it "bricked"—completely and permanently disabled—on the next automatic update …—
Jonathan Zittrain
Jonathan Zittrain3
basketball, informal
: to miss (a shot) very badly : to throw up a brick on (a shot) (see brick entry 1 sense 6)
brick a free throw
Examples of brick in a Sentence
Noun
a house made of brick
a brick of ice cream
children playing with wooden bricks
He has been an absolute brick.
Recent Examples on the Web
Jody Mamone, Hartford Courant, 2 Mar. 2025
Jeske put on mitts to pick up the brick, which looked like it had been pierced by a lightsabre.
—Brent Crane, The New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2025
Tim Moynihan, WIRED, 23 Jan. 2017
The announcement of price changes follows Spotify's recent decision this December to brick its Car Thing hardware after releasing it to the general public in February 2022.
—Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 3 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for brick
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Noun
Vast numbers of firefighters from Norwalk, New Haven, Bridgeport, Waterbury and elsewhere battled the burning 19th-century four-story brick building, a 475,000-square-foot complex that spanned two city blocks.
—Jody Mamone, Hartford Courant, 2 Mar. 2025
Jeske put on mitts to pick up the brick, which looked like it had been pierced by a lightsabre.
—Brent Crane, The New Yorker, 2 Mar. 2025
Verb
Instead, Samsung concentrated on making sure people weren't still using the Note 7, even resorting to pushing out updates to all Note 7 phones to brick the devices.
—Tim Moynihan, WIRED, 23 Jan. 2017
The announcement of price changes follows Spotify's recent decision this December to brick its Car Thing hardware after releasing it to the general public in February 2022.
—Scharon Harding, Ars Technica, 3 June 2024
See All Example Sentences for brick
Cite this Entry
“Brick.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brick. Accessed 6 Mar. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
brick
1 of 2 noun1
a
plural bricks or brick
: a building or paving material made from clay molded into blocks and baked
b
: a block made of brick
2
: a block shaped like a brick
a brick of ice cream
3
: a semisoft mild-flavored cheese
4
: a badly missed shot in basketball
brick
2 of 2 verb1
: to close, face, or pave with bricks
2
: to cause (an electronic device) to become nonfunctional (as by damage, hacking, or software changes)
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