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brickbat - 3 dictionary results

brick⋅bat

[brik-bat]
–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 + bat 1
brick·bat   (brĭk'bāt')   
n.  
  1. A piece, especially of brick, used as a weapon or missile.
  2. 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.

Brickbat

Brick"bat`\, n. A piece or fragment of a brick. See Bat, 4. --Bacon.
Language Translation for : brickbat
Spanish: insulto,
German: der Ziegelbrocken,
Japanese: しんらつな批評
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