In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
GOLDBRICK
goldbrick
(noun) anything that is supposed to be valuable but turns out to be worthless
goldbrick
(noun) a brick-shaped block that looks like gold but is not
goldbrick, goof-off, ne'er-do-well, good-for-nothing, no-account, good-for-naught
(noun) an idle worthless person
goldbrick
(noun) a soldier who performs his duties without proper care or effort
fiddle, shirk, shrink from, goldbrick
(verb) avoid (one’s assigned duties); “The derelict soldier shirked his duties”
victimize, swindle, rook, goldbrick, nobble, diddle, bunco, defraud, scam, mulct, hornswoggle, short-change, con
(verb) deprive of by deceit; “He swindled me out of my inheritance”; “She defrauded the customers who trusted her”;
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Noun
goldbrick (plural goldbricks)
Something fraudulent or nonexistent offered for sale; a swindle or con.
(US slang, dated) A shirker or malingerer.
(US slang, dated) A swindler.
Verb
goldbrick (third-person singular simple present goldbricks, present participle goldbricking, simple past and past participle goldbricked)
(US slang, dated) To shirk or malinger.
(US slang, dated) To swindle.
Source: Wiktionary
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
10 January 2025
INTERSPERSION
(noun) the act of combining one thing at intervals among other things; “the interspersion of illustrations in the text”
Coffee Trivia
