brick

v. (generally) to fail; (of a person) to commit an error or do poorly; (especially in sports) to miss or fail to reach a target, goal, or destination; (of a musical recording) to fail to be successful or sell well; to stiff; (of an electronic device) to be rendered useless. Subjects: English, Music, Sports & Recreation, Technology, Slang

Editorial Note: A thing that has failed can be called a brick. The phrase to drop a brick, meaning to commit a verbal faux pas, dates to at least as early as 1923, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, although Eric Partridge, in the appendix to his Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (p. 1379) recounts an anecdote that purports to date the phrase drop a brick ‘make a mistake’ to a single specific event in 1905 at Trinity College, Cambridge.

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Citations: 1985 Usenet: net.sport.hoops (June 11) “Bird blew it”: He shot air balls, missed BIG 4th quarter shots, bricked free throws, turned the ball over and got burned on D over and over. 1989 Ron Lowman @ Hamilton, Ontario Toronto Star (Canada) (Mar. 20) “Veteran fliers bid adieu to an old sweetheart Canada’s last 9 DC-3 Dakotas being retired” p. A7: Because of miscalculation, their load was too heavy, so they “bricked” the seaplane. 1992 [The Crossjammer] Usenet: rec.sport.basketball.pro (May 1) “Re: SONICS SONICS SONICS…woof woof woof”: Hardaway had an average Hardaway game, and *bricked* crucial shots near the end of the game. 1994 [Jon E. King] Usenet: alt.rock-n-roll (Nov. 2) “OOPS! (was Re: Dream Theater Top 10)”: Boy, I bricked that one. What was I thinking of? 1999 Frazier Moore Charleston Gazette (West Virginia) (Mar. 9) “Huffman enjoys her playing time on ABC” p. P6B: During last year’s pilot season all my friends—actors, writers, directors—were saying, “You gotta read the Aaron Sorkin script.” So I started lobbying to do an audition. But then I went in and bricked.” Bricked? “Screwed up the audition. I walked out, and I was like, ‘Uhhhhh, I just buh-lew it.’ And there was Robert Guillaume. I went up to him and I went, ‘Ohhhh, Robert, I’m not gonna be in on this. I bricked.‘“ 2004 [Eric Jorgensen] Usenet: xmission.general (Feb. 6) “Re: Help—is my Cisco 678 a paperweight now?”: Cisco stopped allowing downloads from their website and leaked the instructions for flashing from the rom monitor after a few tens of thousands of end users bricked their routers using the wrong version, though. 2005 [heldmar] Usenet: alt.internet.wireless (Oct. 17) “Re: What would you recommend as a decent Wireless Router?”: WRT54GS version is a little bit more difficult to manipulate with 3rd party firmwares than WRT54G, not only because some firmwares don’t work on WRT54G, but Linksys’ firmwares aren’t the same and a “bricked” router/AP is harder to recuperate on a 54GS than a 54G. 2005 Donnell Alexander L.A. City Beat (California) (Nov. 16) “What Becomes an Underground Legend Most?”: Soul on Ice got exceptional critical praise from The Source and Rolling Stone, but the album bricked commercially. [2005 Donnell Alexander L.A. City Beat (California) (Nov. 16) “What Becomes an Underground Legend Most?”: While “Ghetto Fabulous” did exactly what it was supposed to do for the producer/rapper, Ras Kass and his very fine RasKassination were in the toilet with his core audience. Brick two.] 2006 Backside 180 (Auburn, Ala.) (Jan. 18) “The Switch. A Boy and a Powerbook.”: I am still smart about what I do online, but I don’t have to live in constant fear that some Active X control is going to surreptitiously install itself and brick my box.

Posted 19 May 06 | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Reader comments:

I bet you’d find dozens of citations for “butt rock” in the archives of music publications like SPIN. I’ve definitely read it before.

by Carl Burnett 22 May 06, 0445 GMT

Sorry, left that on the wrong page, obvs.

by Carl Burnett 22 May 06, 0447 GMT

The verb “brick” goes back a bit earlier in basketball usage (where a “brick” is a missed free throw).

net.sport.hoops: June 11, 1985. He shot air balls, missed BIG 4th quarter shots, bricked free throws, turned the ball over and got burned on D over and over.

by Ben Zimmer 22 May 06, 0337 GMT

Whatever happened to the meaning of ‘brick’ that was some sort of good person, or a steady friend.
I remember a camp movie with the line, “Mona, you’re a brick.”

by ron 'Hollywood' Parro 23 May 06, 0206 GMT