Link Centre Dictionary

goldbrick

goldb·rick

uncommon dated slang us
noun (4) verb (2)

noun

1.

a soldier who performs his duties without proper care or effort

2.
3.

a brick-shaped block that looks like gold but is not

4.

anything that is supposed to be valuable but turns out to be worthless

verb

1.

deprive of by deceit

  • “He swindled me out of my inheritance”
  • “She defrauded the customers who trusted her”
  • “the cashier gypped me when he gave me too little change”
Synonyms
2.

avoid (one''s assigned duties)

  • “The derelict soldier shirked his duties”
Synonyms

Origin

From gold + brick, originally (1850s) an actual gold ingot or brick, later a swindle that consisted of selling a putative gold brick, which was only coated in gold. The swindle is attested from 1879, the sense “to swindle” is attested 1902, and the sense “to shirk” is attested 1914, popularized as World War I armed forces slang. In early 1900s, used to refer to an unattractive young woman - not pretty, nor able to talk or dance (attested 1903), thence to refer to incompetent enlisted troops at the start of World War I, reinforced by the rank insignia of second lieutenants, which was a gold rectangle.

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.