Etymology

Noun

1. A hardened rectangular block of mud, clay etc., used for building.

   This wall is made of bricks.

2. Considered collectively, as a building material.

   This house is made of brick.

3. Something shaped like a brick.

   a plastic explosive brick

4. A helpful and reliable person

   Thanks for helping me wash the car. You're a brick.
5. A shot which misses, particularly one which bounces directly out of the basket because of a too-flat trajectory, as if the ball were a heavier object.

   We can't win if we keep throwing up bricks from three-point land.

6. A power brick; an external power supply consisting of a small box with an integral male power plug and an attached electric cord terminating in another power plug.
7. An electronic device, especially a heavy box-shaped one, that has become non-functional or obsolete.

Adjective

1. Made of brick(s).

   All that was left after the fire was the brick chimney.

Verb

1. To build with bricks.
   • 1904, Thomas Hansom Cockin, An Elementary Class-Book of Practical Coal-Mining, C. Lockwood and Son, page 78

     If the ground is strong right up to the surface, a few yards are usually sunk and bricked before the engines and pit top are erected

   • 1914, The Mining Engineer, Institution of Mining Engineers, page 349

     The shaft was next bricked between the decks until the top scaffold was supported by the brickwork and [made] to share the weight with the prids.

2. To make into bricks.
   • 1904 September 15, James C. Bennett, Walter Renton Ingalls (editor), Lead Smelting and Refining with Some Notes on Lead Mining (1906), The Engineering and Mining Journal, page 66

     The plant, which is here described, for bricking fine ores and flue dust, was designed and the plans produced in the engineering department of the Selby smelter.

3. To hit someone using a brick.
4. To make an electronic device nonfunctional and usually beyond repair, essentially making it no more useful than a brick.

   My VCR was bricked during the lightning storm.

   • 2007 December 14, Joe Barr, “PacketProtector turns SOHO router into security powerhouse”, Linux.com

     installing third-party firmware will void your warranty, and it is possible that you may brick your router.

5. To be in a high state of anxiety: "Bricking it"