brickbats
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From brickbat + -s. The plural only sense (“small rocky particles moving as a group in space”) was coined by the Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) and is used chiefly in reference to his writings.[1]
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈbɹɪkbæts/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈbɹɪkˌbæts/
- Hyphenation: brick‧bats
Noun
[edit]brickbats pl (plural only)
- (astronomy, informal) Small rocky particles moving as a group in space, especially as forming rings around planets.
Noun
[edit]brickbats
Verb
[edit]brickbats
- third-person singular simple present indicative of brickbat
References
[edit]- ^ “brickbat, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023.
