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mud-brick

mud-brick

1 4.8
Made from bricks of mud dried in the sun rather than baked
  • adjective
  • /mʌd brɪk/
translation icon : de adobe
  • Starting with the 1st Dynasty, which began just over a century later, senior court officials built a line of large mud-brick tombs overlooking the capital.

Examples

  • At the top of this rampart was the main city wall, also made of mud-brick, this one more than 25 feet high and 10 feet thick.

  • Extending more than 120 miles from the Caspian Sea eastward, the mud-brick wall was erected earlier than the stone fortifications at Derbent, perhaps to secure the empire against the threat posed by the Hepthalites.

    Academic text (2008)
  • In places, their mud-brick towers still stand to a height of nearly fifty feet.

    Academic text (2004)
  • Hatshepsut (1472-1457) built it some 75 years earlier, possibly replacing an older mud-brick structure.

    Academic text (2006)
  • Just 15 miles south of Derbent, a massive mud-brick fortress called Torpakh-Kala sits in a restricted military zone near the border with Azerbaijan.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Three generations of the royal family, starting with Tupkish and Uqnitum, lived in the mud-brick palace built around 2250 B.C. just west of a slightly older temple.

    Academic text (2008)
  • At Çatalhöyük, a Neolithic site in Turkey, families packed their mud-brick houses close together and traipsed over roofs to climb into their rooms from above.

    Academic text (2006)
  • The mud-brick monument towered 90 feet over a broad plaza that served as the religious and political nerve center of a civilization known as Sicn that lasted from A.D. 800 to 1375 in northern Peru.

    Academic text (2007)
  • Sand-colored mud-brick houses with balconies, latticed windows, and flat roofs lined the old city's narrow, winding alleys and waterfront.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • The village features several durable mud-brick houses that have stood the test of time.

Synonyms

brick
vsmud-brick
440 1.0

A hard rectangular block of baked clay used to build walls or paths

is formed by sun drying wet earth instead of baking in a kiln
cinder block
vsmud-brick
  • US
16 2.9

A hollow rectangular block of concrete used to build walls

is a molded sun-dried earth unit, not a concrete or cinder product
bricks and mortar
vsmud-brick
1 3.1

A building material made of bricks joined with mortar

refers to sun-dried earth units rather than fired block construction
mud brick
vsmud-brick
1 2.7

A brick made from wet earth that gets hard and is used to build walls

is the same process emphasized by sun drying rather than firing
adobe brick
vsmud-brick
1 5.0

A brick made from clay and straw that dries in the sun for building in hot dry places

is like this but typically uses plain wet earth without straw
redbrick
vsmud-brick
1 4.2

Made of red bricks, like many houses and older buildings

is defined by its sun-dried production rather than by color
calcium-silicate brick
vsmud-brick
  • Specialized
6.9

A brick made from sand and lime instead of clay, usually light gray and used for building

is made from wet earth dried in sunlight, not from lime and sand
sand-lime brick
vsmud-brick
  • Specialized
6.7

A type of brick made from sand and lime used for building

uses sun-dried earth rather than a lime and sand composition
flintlime brick
vsmud-brick
  • Specialized
9.0

A brick made from sand and lime, usually light gray in color

is formed from wet earth and hardened by sunlight, not lime
firebrick
vsmud-brick
  • Specialized
6.9

A strong brick that can stand very high heat and line furnaces or fireplaces

is created by sun drying soft earth rather than firing for heat

How Durable

stone
976 1.0
firebrick
  • Specialized
6.9
mud-brick
1 4.8
cobb
  • UK
9.8

Surface Forms

mud-brick positive

Morphology

mud-brick = mud + brick (transparent) = mud + brick

The compound combines two common nouns ('mud' + 'brick') and the meaning 'brick made of mud' is directly inferable by learners.

Etymology

The word mud-brick is simply two words, mud and brick, meaning a 'brick' made from wet mud and dried in the sun instead of being baked in an oven. That's why mud-brick buildings are simple, common in dry places, and can be very old.