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goldbrick

noun

Etymology

From gold + brick, originally (1850s) an actual gold ingot or brick, later a swindle that consisted of selling a putative gold brick, which was only coated in gold. The swindle is attested from 1879, the sense “to swindle” is attested 1902, and the sense “to shirk” is attested 1914, popularized as World War I armed forces slang. In early 1900s, used to refer to an unattractive young woman – not pretty, nor able to talk or dance (attested 1903), thence to refer to incompetent enlisted troops at the start of World War I, reinforced by the rank insignia of second lieutenants, which was a gold rectangle.

  1. derived from *brekan✻ — “to break”
  2. derived from bricke
  3. inherited from brik
  4. compounded as goldbrick — “gold + brick”

Definitions

  1. Something fraudulent or nonexistent offered for sale

    Something fraudulent or nonexistent offered for sale; a swindle or con.

    • Experience is the biggest gold brick in the world. All older people have it for sale.
    • These, as a rule, were not adverse to buying a goldbrick as long as they knew that there was a chance for them to dump it on somebody else afterwards with some profit.
    • To-day, American attitude toward Europe is comparable to that of the country greenhorn who, having bought a goldbrick on Broadway, now fills the air not merely with the denunciation of the sharpers who tricked his credulity — […]

  2. A shirker or malingerer.

    • Tell me that I’ve been a louse and loafer You won’t get a fight here, no ma’am Say I’m a goldbrick, a goof-off, no good But that couldn’t be all that I am

  3. A swindler.

  4. ›+ 2 more definitions

    1. To shirk or malinger.

      • I'd just as soon goldbrick with malaria as with anything else.

    2. To swindle.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for goldbrick. 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