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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. |
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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Link To brickbat
| brick·bat (brĭk'bāt') n.
[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. |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Brickbat
Brick"bat`\, n. A piece or fragment of a brick. See Bat, 4. --Bacon.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : brickbat
Spanish:
insulto,
German:
der Ziegelbrocken,
Japanese:
しんらつな批評
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