goldbrick: M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for October 29 is:

goldbrick \GOLD-brik\ noun
1 a : a worthless brick that appears to be of gold b : something that appears to be valuable but is actually worthless
*2 : a person who shirks assigned work

Example sentence:
While the goldbricks in the office were goofing off, Leslie was rushing to finish the project on time.

Did you know?
"The gold brick swindle is an old one but it crops up constantly," states an 1881 _National Police Gazette_ article referring to the con artist's practice of passing off bricks made of base metal as gold. By the time World War I was under way, the word "goldbrick" was associated with another sort of trickery. The sense of the word meaning "shirker" originated in the slang of the United States Army, where it referred to a soldier who feigned illness or injury in order to get out of work or service. That sense has since expanded in usage to refer to any person who avoids or tries to get out of his or her assignment.

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