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brickbat

brickbat

9.9
A piece of brick thrown at someone as a weapon
  • noun
  • /ˈbrɪkˌbæt/
translation icon : trozo de ladrillo
  • Once they hit Chick in the head with a brickbat that made such a bad cut, his mom had to sew it up with a needle and thread.

Examples

  • I was the same age as some of the students throwing brickbats into our windshield.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • I'm glad this was a Brickbat; I couldn't get past the first couple of paragraphs of the linked article.

    Blog text (4)
  • Right now he couldn't hit a bull's ass with a brickbat.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • The police opened fire for the first time at noon in the GolBagh area, after a pitched battle in which the Sikh and Hindu students attacked the police with brickbats.

    Academic text (2018)
  • In that pre-dawn, bomb and brickbat battle, among the crowds comprising only local residents, between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs in Mohalla Sarin, 151 deaths had occurred.

    Academic text (2018)
  • The protesters threw brickbats at the police during the riot, causing chaos in the streets.

  • In the heat of the argument, he grabbed a brickbat and waved it threateningly at his opponent.

  • During the demonstration, several young people flung brickbats toward the windows of the government building.

How Big

brick
440 1.0
brickbat
9.9
shard
47 4.9
chip
130 2.1

Surface Forms

brickbat singular
brickbats plural

Morphology

brickbat = brick + bat (transparent) = brick + bat

Literal compound of 'brick' + 'bat' describing a fragment or missile made of brick, directly derivable from the components.

Etymology

Brickbat originally meant a broken piece of brick that could be thrown as a weapon, a hard shard you might hurl in a fight.