Also 6–7 brickbatt. [See BRICK sb.1 and BAT sb.2] A piece or fragment of a brick; properly, according to Gwilt, less than one half of its length. It is the typical ready missile, where stones are scarce.
1563–87. Foxe, A. & M., III. 329. She sent a brickbat after him, and hit him on the back.
1597. S. Finche, in Hist. Croydon, App. (1783), 153. They have filled up that trenche with … brickbatts, and rubbushe.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, I. 269. A very numerous mob … assaulted the room … with brickbats and stones.
1823. P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 355. The three-quarter brick, or brick-bat, is called a closer.
1871. Dixon, Tower, IV. xxvii. 288. Mud and brick-bats greeted the returning guards.
fig. 1642. Milton, Apol. Smect. (1851), 275. I beseech ye friends, ere the brick-bats flye, resolve me and yourselves, is it blasphemy … for me to answer a slovenly wincer.
b. comb. brickbat-cheese.
1784. J. Twamley, Dairying Exempl., 59. To make brick bat Cheese … put it into a wooden mould in the shape of a brick, press it a little, then dry it.
1861. Mrs. Beeton, Bk. Househ. Management, 809. Brickbat cheese has nothing remarkable except its form.
