[f. BRICK sb.1] Mostly in comb. with advbs.
1. To brick up: to build or close up with brickwork.
1648. Bury Wills (1850), 211. I desire that the passage into the vault be bricked and filled up.
1691. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), II. 259. Orders for bricking up their little gate leading into Whitefryers.
1794. Burke, Imp. W. Hastings, Wks. XV. 414. Very great sums of money are bricked up and kept in vaults.
1868. E. Edwards, Ralegh, I. i. 9. They have bricked up the lower part of the … window.
2. To brick over: to cover with brick.
a. 1845. Hood, Town & Count., xiv. See Hatton’s Gardens bricked all o’er.
1863. Browning, Bp. orders Tomb. Bricked o’er with beggar’s mouldy travertine.
3. To line, face or pave with brick; to imitate brickwork on a plaster surface by lining and coloring.
1825. Mrs. Sherwood, Old Times, II. in Houlston Tracts, I. xxiv. 7. They are now bricked in the front.
1830. D’Israeli, Chas. I., III. vi. 107. The decent appearance of bricking their [house] fronts.
4. intr. To work with (load, make, etc.) bricks.
1884. Pall Mall Gaz., 10 Sept., 10/2. Another man named Allen, who was bricking at a vessel close by, is also fearfully injured.
5. U.S. slang. (See quot.)
1863. Daily Tel., 11 Aug., 5/5 (Amer. Corresp.). Another favourite punishment … was that of ‘bricking,’ which was done by bringing the knees close up to the chin and lashing the arms tightly to the knees.
