brickbat
nounEtymology
The noun is derived from brick + bat (“a bit, piece; specifically, part of a brick with one whole end”). The verb is derived from the noun.
Definitions
A piece of brick, rock, etc., especially when used as a weapon (for example, thrown or…
A piece of brick, rock, etc., especially when used as a weapon (for example, thrown or placed in a sock or other receptacle and used as a club).
- [S]he sēt [sent] a brick back after him & hit him on þᵉ back, […]
- [Y]ᵉ body of King Charles the First was privately putt into the Sand about White-hall; and the coffin that was carried to Windsor and layd in K. Hen[ry] 8^(th's) vault was filled with rubbish, or brick-batts.
- Fragments of glass kept company with the dust on the floor, together with a choice collection of stones, brickbats, and other missiles,—which not improbably were the cause of their being there.
A piece of (sharp) criticism or a (highly) uncomplimentary remark.
- Not honoured, hardly even envied; only fools and the flunkey-species so much as envy me. I am conspicuous,—as a mark for curses and brickbats. What good is it?
To attack (someone or something) by swinging or throwing brickbats (noun sense 1).
- We had two boys arrested, both colored, for brick-batting a colored woman in her house. They were sent to the chaingang for 12 months each.
›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer
To assail (someone or something) with (sharp) criticism.
The neighborhood
Derived
Vish — recursive loop
No curated loop yet for brickbat. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA