redbrick
adjective
Did you know?
Although red brick is a perfectly innocent building material in America, the British usage of redbrick is often potentially uncomplimentary. Redbrick is a British coinage created to denote the universities which were newer and perhaps less prestigious than Oxford and Cambridge (and sometimes the ancient universities of Scotland). These newer universities tended to be constructed of red brick, rather than the stone used for Oxford and Cambridge, and were most often created in industrial cities such as Liverpool. Sometimes the term is also used to distinguish these universities from those built after World War II. Limited evidence suggests that redbrick may be developing an extended meaning of "lower-class" or "working class," but this is not yet established enough to merit a dictionary entry.
Examples of redbrick in a Sentence
Celia Fernandez, CNBC, 22 Jan. 2025
Situated approximately 40 miles north of the city, the redbrick Georgian home boasted nine bedrooms, seven fireplaces, a recording studio, a ballroom, a pistol range, and both indoor and outdoor swimming pools.
—Joyce Chen, Architectural Digest, 3 Dec. 2024
The 1,531-square-foot two-bedroom penthouse duplex is one of six units at 50-52 Rutland Square, an 1860 redbrick town house.
—Marni Elyse Katz, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Nov. 2022
The School of Divinity’s narrow tower looms over the campus, a phallic, redbrick building that resembles an oversize lighthouse, and holds a replica of the Liberty Bell at the top.
—Brice Particelli, Harper’s Magazine , 7 Dec. 2021
Yet just across the slow-running River Tyne, the redbrick houses of Europe’s last great yeshiva town are visible in the smaller neighboring city of Gateshead.
—Jacob Judah, sun-sentinel.com, 17 Mar. 2021
All in all, there are 400 businesses on the 300-acre property, which fuses contemporary buildings and historic redbrick factories—the perfect place for Vogue and the CFDA’s annual soirée.
—Elise Taylor, Vogue, 6 Nov. 2018
The road is lined with endless rows of ramshackle redbrick buildings.
—The Economist, 14 June 2018
As if to advertise Moscow’s contradictions, the far end of Nikolskaya looks out at the imposing yellow and redbrick Lubyanka building, once home to the KGB and now housing its successor, the FSB organization.
—Trudy Rubin, Philly.com, 18 Apr. 2018
Cite this Entry
“Redbrick.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/redbrick. Accessed 5 Jul. 2025.
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