Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A piece, especially of brick, that is used as a weapon or missile.
- noun An unfavorable remark; a criticism.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A piece or fragment of a brick; especially, a piece of a brick used as a missile. See
bat , 8. - To assail with pieces of brick: as, the mob brickbatted the police.
- noun Hornblende schist, which upon weathering breaks up into rectangular blocks from three sets of joints.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A piece or fragment of a brick. See 1st
bat , n. 4.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun obsolete : A piece of brick used as a weapon, especially if thrown, or placed in something like a sock and used as a club.
- noun A
criticism or uncomplimentary remark.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun blunt criticism
- noun a fragment of brick used as a weapon
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I do not feel any dereliction of duty but do feel that your brickbat is a duffer.
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To swell into the hammer-swinging hardhat who loomed in the parlor sipping vodka and orange juice, hurling brickbat words and scraps of heart shrapnel at my mother, sister and me.
1997: What I Wanted Thomas Pluck 2011
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As described spot-on by Timothy Garton Ash in The Guardian newspaper, "In France, genocide has become a political brickbat," Jan. 18: ... a tragedy which should be the subject for grave commemoration and free historical debate, calmly testing even wayward hypotheses against the evidence, is reduced to an instrument of political manipulation, a politician's brickbat.
Yavuz Baydar: Paris's Folly Yavuz Baydar 2012
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Doug Muzzio , a professor of public affairs at Baruch College, praised Mr. Stringer's report on the substance but also characterized it as a political brickbat.
Speaker Grants Targeted Michael Howard Saul 2011
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Since then, Democrats have done their best to turn this moment into a redux of the Lowden "chicken" flap -- a brickbat that they can use to hit Kasich with again and again.
Ohio's John Kasich Continues GOP's Year-Long Chicken Problem 2010
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The Maloney campaign plans to use Ms. Saujani's financial experience as a brickbat, aiming to take advantage of the anti-Wall Street climate.
Upstarts Aim to Unseat Upper East Side Fixture Michael Howard Saul 2010
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The word has a sexual connotation -- which, by the by -- the Tea Party movement embraced for itself before it became used as a brickbat against them.
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His father was a brawling shipyard-pipe fitter, “built like a Birmingham brickbat, but lacking all the wit and modesty God gave a cobblestone.”
In The Shadow of The Cypress Thomas Steinbeck 2010
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Whether you want to give us a break, bouquet or brickbat, go to our website, NPR. org, and click on Contact Us. You can also reach out to us on Twitter at NPRWeekend.
Your Letters: Gulf Recovery; Immigration And Healthcare 2010
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Since then, Democrats have done their best to turn this moment into a redux of the Lowden "chicken" flap -- a brickbat that they can use to hit Kasich with again and again.
Ohio's John Kasich Continues GOP's Year-Long Chicken Problem 2010
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