one brick short of a full load
- idiom
- Offensive
- Anyone who tries to fix electronics with water is clearly one brick short of a full load.
Examples
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The way he acted in that meeting, he seemed one brick short of a full load.
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My neighbor is nice, but she's a bit one brick short of a full load sometimes.
-
I think he is one brick short of a full load.
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She acts like she's one brick short of a full load!
-
Anyone who tries to fix electronics with water is clearly one brick short of a full load.
-
My neighbor is nice, but she's a bit one brick short of a full load sometimes.
-
The way he acted in that meeting, he seemed one brick short of a full load.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Not intelligent and showing poor judgment
6
5.3
Not very smart and slow to understand things
Antonyms
How Intelligent
949
3.7
573
1.7
∞
1.0
- Offensive
5
7.8
- Offensive
- Offensive
3
6.7
Surface Forms
Morphology
one + brick + short + of + a + full + load
The phrase literally describes something missing a piece (one brick short of a full load), so a learner who knows the constituents could infer a sense of being 'incomplete' or lacking. However, the jump from 'incomplete' to the evaluative meaning 'slightly stupid' relies on a culture-specific, humorous metaphor and is not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The idiom one brick short of a full load may come from the image of a stack of bricks where one brick is missing from a full load, so the pile is not complete. That's why people use it to say someone is 'not very intelligent' or a bit foolish.