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brickbat

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4 dictionary results for: brickbat

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

brick·bat

[brik-bat] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	a piece of broken brick, esp. one used as a missile.

2.	any rocklike missile.

3.	an unkind or unfavorable remark; caustic criticism: The critics greeted the play with brickbats.

[Origin: 1555–65; brick + bat¹

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

brick·bat (brĭk'bāt') Pronunciation Key
n.

A piece, especially of brick, used as a weapon or missile.
An unfavorable remark; a criticism.

[brick + bat¹, piece of brick.]

Word History: The earliest sense of brickbat, first recorded in 1563, was "a piece of brick." Such pieces of brick have not infrequently been thrown at others in the hope of injuring them; hence, the figurative brickbats (first recorded in 1929) that critics hurl at performances they dislike. The appearance of bat as the second part of this compound is explained by the fact that the word bat, "war club, cudgel," developed in Middle English the sense "chunk, clod, wad," and in the 16th century came to be used specifically for a piece of brick that was unbroken on one end.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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