skilfully moulded, that, in spite of a frail and infirm nature, he has preserved his shape thus early given. The fiery test but determines his solidity; his sound, staunch, and unshrinking firmness, constitutes him a regular brick or hero, the attributes which especially qualify him for that metaphorical appellation. Cf., On the SQUARE; STRAIGHT—TRUE—CLEAN AS A DIE.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (Brothers of Birchington). In brief I don't stick to declare, Father Dick, So they called him for short, was a regular brick; A metaphor taken, I have not the page aright, Out of an ethical work by the Stagyrite.
1850. Smedley, Frank Fairlegh, p. 10. 'Mr. Fairlegh, let me introduce this gentleman, Mr. George Lawless; he is, if he will allow me to say so, one of the most rising young men of his generation, one of the firmest props of the glorious edifice of our rights and privileges.' 'A regular brick,' interposed Coleman.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, ch. x. 'But the others are capital. There is that little chap who has just had the measles—he's a dear little brick.'
1856. T. Hughes, Tom Brown's School-days, p. 100. He voted E.'s new crony a brick.
1876. George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, ch. xvi. Their brothers' friend, declared by Hans to be the salvation of him, a fellow like nobody else, and, in fine, a brick.
French Synonyms. Un bon gniasse (cads' and thieves'); être d'un bon bouchon (to be a brick. Michel gives bouchon as 'cadet'); un bon bougre (popular: Barrère says the word bougre is often used with a disparaging sense; bougre de cochon, 'you dirty pig'; bougre de serin, 'you ass.' Littré derives bougre from Bulgarus, Bulgarian; the heretic Albigeois, who shared the religious ideas of some of the Bulgarians, received the name of bougres); un zig, zigue, zigorneau, zigard, or zingo (popular: Michel gives zig as camarade, 'a comrade'; in Italian zigno or petit lézard which latter (lézard) signifies in French argot, a 'bad lot').
Verb (American).—To punish a man by bringing the knees close up to the chin, and lashing the arms tightly to the knees—a species of trussing.
Like a brick—like bricks—(and in an intensive form) LIKE A THOUSAND OF BRICKS, adv. phr. (common). — With energy; alacrity; thoroughly; vehemently and with much display. [Derived partly attributively from brick (q.v.), and partly in allusion to the crash of failing bricks.] There are numerous similes of a kindred character; e.g., Like beans; Like one o'clock; Like blazes, all of which see.
1835. Dickens, Sketches, p. 139. Bump they [cab and horse] cums agin the post, and out flies the fare like bricks.
1837. Barham, I. L. (Ingoldsby Penance). For the Friar to his skirts closely sticks, 'Running after him,'—so said the Abbot,—like bricks!
1860. New Orleans Picayune, April 27 (Police Report). 'When it came to the breakdown, Your Honor, he kicked up a row like a drove of contrary mules, and when we wanted to turn him out, he fell upon us like a thousand of bricks, and threatened to make minced meat of the police and every one of us.
1864. Western World, March 5. 'When Mr. Nye had finished, Mr. Stewart rose, and with his irresistible logic and impressive language came down upon him like a thousand of bricks, till he was utterly crushed and demolished.'
