bricked

1. 1
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of brick.

   A failed firmware update bricked thousands of routers overnight.

   The masons bricked over the fireplace when they remodeled the house.

   Note

   Builders and gadget owners share this form. In the literal trade sense it is transitive, as in the masons bricked over the fireplace. In tech slang it works both ways: an update bricked the router, or the router simply bricked on its own. As a participle it also builds the passive, so a device that has died beyond repair is said to be bricked.

   My old tablet bricked halfway through the update.

   After the failed reset, the phone was bricked for good.

2. 2
   adjectiveslang

   Having an erection.

   He shifted in his seat, embarrassed to be so obviously bricked in public.

   A few drinks in, he was bricked and couldn't stop thinking about her.

   Similarerect, hard, aroused

   Oppositeflaccid, limp, soft

   Note

   It belongs to casual talk between adults, and it is mildly vulgar: fine as a joke among friends, out of place at work, in class or in careful writing. The longer bricked up means the same thing. Because the spelling matches the verb's past tense, context does the sorting: walls and phones get bricked by someone, but only a person can be bricked in this sense.

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