- [countable, uncountable] baked clay used for building walls, houses and other buildings; an individual block of this
- The school is built of brick.
- a pile of bricks
- a brick wall
Extra ExamplesTopics Buildingsb2, Physics and chemistryb2- He got a job at the local brick works.
- Conservationists moved the whole house, brick by brick.
- They put an extra course of bricks around the pool.
- We rebuilt the fireplace using salvaged bricks.
- a house of red brick
- learning to lay bricks properly
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- red
- adobe
- clay
- …
- lay
- use
- hurl
- …
- wall
- building
- house
- …
- in brick
- of brick
- brick by brick
- bricks and mortar
- a course of bricks
- …
Want to learn more?
Find out which words work together and produce more natural sounding English with the Oxford Collocations Dictionary app.
- [countable] a plastic or wooden block, used as a toy for young children to build things with
- [countable, usually singular] (British English, old-fashioned, informal) a friend that you can rely on when you need help
- Thanks for looking after the children today—you're a real brick.
Word Originlate Middle English: from Middle Low German, Middle Dutch bricke, brike; probably reinforced by Old French brique; of unknown ultimate origin.
Idioms
See brick in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee brick in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishbe banging, etc. your head against a brick wall
- (informal) to keep trying to do something that will never be successful
- Trying to reason with them was like banging my head against a brick wall.
be up against a brick wall
- to be unable to make any progress because there is a difficulty that stops youTopics Difficulty and failurec2
drop a brick/clanger
- (British English, informal) to say something that offends or embarrasses somebody, although you did not intend to
like a cat on hot bricks (British English)
like a cat on a hot tin roof British and North American English
- very nervous
- She was like a cat on hot bricks before her driving test.
like a cat on a hot tin roof
(British English also like a cat on hot bricks)
- very nervous
- She was like a cat on a hot tin roof before her driving test.
like a ton of bricks
- (informal) very heavily; very severely
- Disappointment hit her like a ton of bricks.
- They came down on him like a ton of bricks (= criticized him very severely).
make bricks without straw
- (British English) to try to work without the necessary material, money, information, etc.
Check pronunciation:
brick