Definition of "goldbrick" in English

noun

1. Something fraudulent or nonexistent offered for sale; a swindle or con.

   • Experience is the biggest gold brick in the world. All older people have it for sale.
   • The average farmer may be less of a victim than some other people by reason of his isolation, conservatism, and hard earned money, but he, too, has too often bought a goldbrick that did not materialize.
   • […] that if he bought a goldbrick from Podhoretz for $25,000, he ought to pay me more than the $5,000 a volume that had been agreed on for the pure gold […]

2. (US, slang, dated) A shirker or malingerer.

   • Mac, there’s not a confounded thing wrong with you. You are an excellent physical specimen and in good health. You’re nothing but a goldbrick. Now, get your butt out of here and don’t ever come back again unless you’re really sick or need an immunization.
   • Tell me that I’ve been a louse and loafer You won’t get a fight here, no ma’am Say I’m a goldbrick, a goof-off, no good But that couldn’t be all that I am

3. (US, slang, dated) A swindler.

verb

1. (US, slang, dated) To shirk or malinger.

2. (US, slang, dated) To swindle.